The Royal Bank of Scotland and its subsidiary NatWest are shutting down Bo, the bank’s stand-alone personal finance app, in the latest example of a big bank digital offshoot’s failure to gain traction with consumers. RBS announced the news in its earnings report today.

“Bo was always going to have a tough time attracting customers, given the crowded nature and maturity of the digital banking market in the U.K.,” said Sarah Kocianski, lead researcher at the fintech consultancy 11:FS. “Now is not a good time to make a big push for customer acquisition unless you can offer a proposition that offers clear value in the current circumstances.” 

Bo, designed to mimic challengers like Monzo and Revolut — but with the backing of a legacy bank, now follows the path of JPMorgan Chase’s Finn, which folded last summer. The promise of stand-alone apps from big banks has remained largely unfulfilled as they fail to garner the popularity of their startup competitors. 

Bo launched publicly just over five months ago and had gained 11,000 customers. According to reports, Chief Product Officer Ollie Purdue left the bank last week, and Bo CEO Mark Bailie left in January. 

“We are prioritising our investment spend across the bank on products and services that allow us to provide the best possible support for customers and colleagues,” a NatWest spokesperson said. “After careful consideration, we have made the decision to wind down Bo, and focus on our digital bank for [small- and medium-sized enterprises], Mettle. The technology that underpins Bo will be integrated as we develop Mettle to better support our SME customers, who play such a crucial role in our economy.”

See also: Revolut makes US debut in shaky COVID-19 economy

Stephen Greer, a senior analyst at Celent, previously told Bank Innovation that the goal of big banks to modernize through stand-alone digital brands has faced challenges. He said such products are often built on banks’ existing tech infrastructure, so many consumers just transfer money into the apps and don’t use them for their primary banking relationship.  

Bo faced similar challenges to Finn, according to Kocianski: entering a crowded market too late and struggling to differentiate from the legacy bank’s brand. She added, however, that it isn’t completely hopeless for big banks to create digital offshoots. “The larger banks have more leeway to offer rewards and loyalty schemes than the lean startups, so this is one way they could ensure their digital brands stand out,” she said.  

Still, an extended economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 crisis could provide further challenges to stand-alone apps if banks retract spending on innovation projects. 

“Banks might kid themselves that they are going to build the next Monzo, but you can’t run away from yourself if you are doing the same things with the same business models,” Alyson Clarke, principal analyst at Forrester Research, previously told Bank Innovation. “Most of these digital offshoots will not survive the other side of the recession.”