UK challenger bank Monzo announced on Friday it was putting its plans on hold to allow its users to pay in cheques with a picture. The startup reported that last year it announced its plans to join the Image Clearing System, but in January, it was reported that there was a delay due to Monzo wanting to focus on other projects and there only being a few ‘go-live’ dates throughout the year. It was then revealed:
“Since then we’ve started work on a number of really exciting projects that need our focus right now like Business Banking. Unfortunately, that means we’ve chosen to pause work on joining the Image Clearing System for now. And we can’t say when we’ll pick it back up.”
Monzo also reported that while its still disappointed that it is not going to deliver something it said that it would, users will still benefit from the quicker cheque clearing times that’ll come into effect soon. Monzo added:
“From Q3 2019, instead of waiting 5-6 days for us to credit your account, we’ll be able to do it within 2 working days. And this isn’t to say that we’re going to discount working on this entirely! As with most things at Monzo, we’ll revisit it at a later date, armed with a bit more data and re-assess the impact this will have against any other projects we’ve got coming up.”