Monzo is putting a halt to its plans to join the UK’s Cheque Image Clearing System, for a focus on building its business banking.

The FinTech unicorn announced it had started developing plans to join the image clearing system in June last year.

Image clearing enables customers to upload an image of a cheque from a phone, handheld device or desktop to automatically deposit the amount into their account, without the need to manually submit a paper cheque.

At the time Monzo acknowledged the dwindling use of cheques as customers switch to digital banking methods, but cited figures suggesting that more than 400 million cheques were cashed in 2017, adding that it would provide customers with the ability to use cheques “for as long as they’re needed”.

However, the challenger bank announced it was putting on hold its plans to provide mobile cheque clearing to “focus on other projects that will benefit our customers”, giving plans for business banking services as a key example.

Monzo is one of several to be competing for funding from the £775 million RBS Alternative Remedies Package, and has put business banking at the heart of its bid for a share of the cash.

Announcing the shortlist of 11 contender in December, the Board of Banking Competition Remedies noted that Nationwide and Monzo meet all the eligibility criteria, but were yet to launch a business current account offering.

Last month, the FinTech opened the waiting list for a trial its first business account, designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and sole traders.

In a blog posted to Monzo’s website, payment scheme manager James Berry, said of the decision to focus efforts on business banking services: “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.”

He added: “Less than 0.1 per of our customers have ever deposited a cheque! So there’s a good chance that, if we spend our time and effort on something else, we could build something that helps more of you.”

Berry said the pause in developing cheque clearing did not mean the bank would rule out picking it back up in future.

“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,” he wrote.

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