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Starling Bank hits the high street with Post Office partnership
Customers can now deposit and withdraw cash through the Post Office’s 11,500 UK branches.
Starling Bank is no stranger to partnerships. The fintech banking app has prioritised integrations with third party providers in an effort to bolster the range of services available to customers in-app. Now, the firm has struck a partnership which gives it access to the high street.
Starling has this morning announced a partnership with the Post Office, implanting its services 11,500 branches nationwide. Customers will now be able to withdraw and deposit cash and check their balance at any one of these outposts.
It’s unfamiliar territory for the digital bank, which until now has offered a mobile-only service with no branches whatsoever, as do many of its competitors.
Starling is the 28th bank to sign up to the Post Office’s Banking Framework. According to the start-up, 1,500 communities across the UK do not have a local bank branch, a gap the Post Office’s scheme seeks to plug.
The Post Office boasts more branches across the country than all of the UK’s banks and building societies combined. Its coverage means that 99.7 per cent of UK citizens live within three miles of their nearest branch – 93 per cent within a mile. Banking activity at these branches is rising rapidly, up to 125m transactions last year.
The Post Office has also been pushing to modernise its operations, with 4,000 of its branches now open on Sundays – a favourite feature of challenger bank Metro Bank.
Anne Boden, chief executive officer of Starling, said in a statement: “There are now over 1,500 communities in the UK with no bank branch, so by combining Starling’s cutting-edge digital banking technology with the unique reach of Post Office branches, we can bring simple and affordable banking back to these Bank Branch Deserts.”
The Telegraph reported this morning this morning that Starling Bank has secured £10m in funding from existing backer Harald McPike, as part of a planned £80m fundraise. The Bahamas-based hedge fund manager McPike invested roughly £55m in Starling’s pre-launch round in 2016.
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