Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Monzo Bank Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Miss G, a vulnerable customer registered with Monzo since 2019 due to gambling difficulties, complained that Monzo failed to prevent her gambling losses in 2024. She made substantial losses through payments to competition websites (not coded as gambling) and cash withdrawals. Monzo had set limits on withdrawals and card payments from 2022, and carefully reviewed Miss G's repeated requests to increase these limits through its vulnerability team, approving some and declining others. When Miss G informed Monzo of the competition website payments, it applied merchant blocks to five sites. The ombudsman found that Monzo acted fairly and appropriately, noting that the competition websites could not have been identified as gambling due to their merchant codes, and that Monzo could not prevent Miss G using cash withdrawals for legal gambling activities. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Monzo had to consider reasonable adjustments for Miss G's vulnerability, it would be unrealistic to expect constant account monitoring. Monzo could only review accounts when alerted by specific triggers (fraudulent activity, financial problems, unusual activity). The competition website payments could not have been identified as gambling because they did not use gambling merchant category codes. Monzo appropriately applied merchant blocks once informed. Regarding cash withdrawals, Monzo carefully reviewed limit increase requests and only approved them when satisfied it was appropriate. Since gambling is legal and Monzo had no way to prevent Miss G using withdrawn cash for gambling, it could not be held responsible for her spending choices. The ombudsman was satisfied that Monzo offered appropriate support throughout.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website