Not upheld: Irresponsible lending complaint against Monzo Bank Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Miss M complained that Monzo irresponsibly provided her with three loans between May 2024 and February 2025. Although Miss M had overstated her income in her applications, Monzo verified her actual income through credit checks and found no adverse credit information or signs of financial difficulty. The ombudsman found that based on Miss M's disposable income, expenditure, healthy account balance, and no missed payments, the loans appeared affordable. While acknowledging that further checks should have been conducted between applications, the ombudsman concluded there was no evidence of irresponsible lending and did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that based on the information Monzo gathered and verified through credit checks, all three loans appeared affordable given Miss M's disposable income after accounting for expenditure. Although checks for the latter two loans may not have been proportionate, Miss M's bank statements showed no evidence of financial difficulty, she was managing her commitments well, had no missed payments, and maintained a healthy account balance. The ombudsman concluded there was nothing to suggest Miss M was unable to sustainably repay the credit, and Miss M had not disclosed her actual circumstances to Monzo until making her complaint.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website