App-only bank Monzo went down along with other UK fintech startups on Sunday

App-only bank Monzo went down following a technical glitch experienced by its payments processing partner. The glitch, which occurred on Sunday (5 March) morning, also affected other fintech startups such as Revolut, Loot and Curve.

The issue, which has now been resolved, was said to have affected card payments, topups, and sending money – but each startup assured their users that all money was safe.

“One of our suppliers needs to run an unexpected, large migration and we are waiting for further information. We dont have a firm estimate when this will be completed and suggest everyone uses another card today,” said Monzo during the glitch.

“Were so sorry for any inconvenience this causes you. Your money is safe and this is only a temporary issue. We will be conducting a full review of how and why this happened and what can be done, by both us and the supplier, to ensure this does not happen again.”

The payments processor in question is, as reported by Business Insider, Global Processing Services (GPS). GPS is a Dubai-based company that acts as a middle man between the startups and the Mastercard network.

“We’ve just finished a 12-month project to connect our systems directly to MasterCard,” said Oliver Beattie, head of engineering at Monzo, in a blog post. “When we launch the current account later this year, it will not use a third-party card processor and instead transactions will be processed entirely on our own technology. We see ourselves as a technology company as much as a bank, and going forward our strategy is to bring all critical systems in-house and continue to develop our own platform atop modern technology which we control.”