Starling Bank gets UK banking licence
Anne Boden, CEO, Starling Bank
New challenger bank Starling has received its UK banking licence and adopted Faster Payments.
Starling Bank says the licence comes with unspecified “restrictions” from the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. The bank aims to launch to customers by January 2017.
Anne Boden, CEO, Starling Bank, says: “For the past year, our team has been focused on building our product and technology from the ground up.
“By 2020, the number of UK mobile banking users will double from 17.8 million to 32.6 million and our aim is to empower these people to better manage their finances with an incredible app, purpose-built for those who happily manage their lives on their phone.”
Starling has also unveiled its new brand identity, launched its new website, and says it will join Faster Payments, the UK’s 24/7 real-time payment service, later in the year.
Definitely not far from the madding crowd
Prior to this latest licence development, CTO Mark Hipperson, who was also the bank’s co-founder, recently left Starling. He said at the time: “We had a disagreement on the way forward and I therefore decided I would resign.”
The bank was also part of the challenger crowd that turned its attention to artificial intelligence (AI) – in a quest to provide a more personalised approach to banking.
Starling joins a packed and lively collection of UK challenger banks. Banking Technology conducted an extensive analysis of this space: “UK challenger banks: who’s who”.
