Monzo has been ordered to comply with banking rules after failing to send thousands of customers their historic financial transactions when leaving the digital bank.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has slapped Monzo with legally binding directions enforceable in court after the lender breached an order that sets out that every customer must receive copies of their transaction history when they close their account.
Banks are required to provide this information because it acts as important evidence if the customer chooses to apply for a loan or mortgage elsewhere, says the CMA.
Monzo told the CMA it had failed to send transaction histories to over 13,000 customers, despite reporting a similar breach last year. On that occasion the CMA issued a warning after the bank failed to provide transaction histories to more than 143,000 former account holders.
Monzo has since contacted all affected customers to offer them a copy of their transaction history. It has also put in place measures - including auto-alerts to warn staff when the system fails to issue transaction histories to customers - designed to prevent future failures.
The CMA cannot currently impose financial penalties on businesses for breaches of this kind but has called for the power to do so.
Adam Land, senior director, CMA, says: "It’s simply not good enough for a major bank like Monzo to repeatedly fail its customers by not following clear rules."