On 24 June 2025, Zopa unwrapped Biscuit, a current-account package that mixes a 2% headline interest rate, 2% cashback on Direct Debit, and access to a 7.10% AER regular saver. Customers who keep the average UK current-account balance of £4,460 and max out the perks could pocket about £256 a year—Zopa’s opening gambit to prise paycheques away from the high-street giants.
The offer lands at a moment when Zopa finally has the balance-sheet muscle to compete on deposits. After securing its full banking licence in 2020, the former P2P pioneer swung to a £15.8 million pre-tax profit in 2023 on £3.4 billion of deposits and a £2.7 billion loan book—one of the fastest profitability pivots in UK fintech history.
By adding an everyday account to profitable lending, Zopa is betting that a full-stack model: earn margins on credit, fund them with sticky deposits, will trump the fee-free, “grow-first-monetise-later” playbooks that defined the 2010s cohort of challengers.
Will Biscuit Change Consumer Digital Bank Behaviour?
History suggests the odds are long. Despite two decades of regulatory nudges and slick apps, the Big Four still dominate day-to-day banking, controlling roughly two-thirds of retail deposits in 2024. Of the UK’s 20 million challenger-bank users, just one in five calls a neobank their primary account.
Even breakout stars illustrate the stickiness problem. Monzo has surpassed 12 million customers and turned its first full-year profit, yet independent data show that many treat the Coral card as a side wallet, not a salary hub. Inertia is cultural: Brits seldom switch banks, but also economic: running a full current-account franchise is capital-intensive, compliance-heavy and, at today’s rates, less lucrative than unsecured lending or fees on crypto and metal cards.
Zopa’s counter-argument is three-fold. First, sustainable profitability means it can afford to subsidise yields without chasing venture capital. Second, Biscuit is pitched as a financial “operating system” budgeting tools, high-yield pots, automated insights, rather than yet another neon debit card. Third, regulators are squeezing flashier revenue lines (BNPL, crypto), tilting the playing field back toward dull but dependable banking.
Whether that is enough to trigger a wave of CASS switches remains to be seen. Cash incentives still tempt many customers to bounce back to incumbents once the bonus expires. And while Biscuit’s £256 headline benefit is competitive, it demands active engagement—maintaining balances, maximising Direct Debits and drip-feeding a saver pot—behaviours that mass-market customers don’t always adopt.
Bottom line
Biscuit is more than branding sugar; it is a test of whether UK consumers will finally reward a challenger that marries profitable lending with a genuinely rewarding current account. If the answer is yes, expect the next fintech cycle to pivot from crypto trading and premium tiers back to the unglamorous but sticky core of retail banking. If not, Zopa’s biscuit may crumble—proof that in British banking, heritage and habit remain the toughest nuts to crack.