The startup last year announced plans to join the image clearing system, a move that would have enabled customers to remotely deposit cheques into their account by taking a snapshot of the paper instrument on their mobile camera.

Monzo is one of a clutch of banks bidding for funding from the RBS bail-out scheme, and is working overtime to deliver a credible model for a business banking service.

In stopping work on cheque image clearing, the app-only bank says that fewer than than 0.1% of its digitally-savvy customers have ever deposited a cheque.

James Berry, payment scheme manager, Monzo, describes the pull-back as a "pause", but admits that the bank has no room in its calendar to pencil in a future date.

"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."