A collection of industry veterans is setting up a digital-first bank aimed at the UK's mass-affluent market.
Currently in the "latter stages" of applying for a banking licence, Monument will serve professionals, property investors and entrepreneurs with a net worth of between £250,000 and £5 million.
It will offer savings and property investment lending products to clients, with entirely digital app-based and online services.
However, the startup is also promising the human touch. Customers will be able to communicate via live chat, video and co-browsing features, as well as - in a post-Covid world - meet with relationship managers in city-centre "Monument Lounges".
With executives and board members that have held senior roles in HSBC, Barclays, McKinsey & Co, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Apollo Global Management, PWC, Coutts and regulators, the venture has already raised over £10 million in seed funding and has working capital for about 15 months.
Mintoo Bhandari, CEO, Monument, says: "We never planned to launch a bank during a global pandemic. But it turns out - as we now find ourselves in the latter stages of the regulatory approval process - the timing is highly relevant.
"Clients want the ability to bank effectively at their convenience and wherever they are, on their phone or computer and more robustly than they would have imagined possible just last year."