Anne Boden confirms Starling’s global launch of banking-as-a-service

The CEO also details Starling’s plan to ramp up its lending in 2022 and the bank’s boycott of Facebook advertising.

In her annual letter to customers, Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden confirmed the upcoming global launch of Starling’s banking-as-a-service offering, as was exclusively first reported by AltFi last year.

“As we enter the new year we’re embarking on a new phase,” Boden wrote, under the heading ‘a new phase for 2022’. 

“Starting with the launch of our Software as a Service, or SaaS, proposition, taking Starling’s software to banks around the globe.”

The Starling founder said the project would see her bank offer up Starling’s technology for banks and financial institutions to harness. However, Boden offered no timeline on when the launch would be coming.

In conversation with AltFi in December, Starling’s chief banking officer Helen Bierton said: “We feel that this is a service that we could offer completely internationally… offering more of our services in more geographies and to more businesses.”

Boden’s letter also detailed Starling’s ongoing plan to expand its lending, including more M&A activity, which the bank demonstrated twice last year with its deal to buy Fleet Mortgages.

“Expect a mix of strategic forward flow arrangements, organic lending across various asset classes and a targeted M&A strategy focusing on selected lending originators,” she wrote.

Finally, the CEO disclosed her ongoing frustrations with big tech and social media giants for allowing financial fraudsters to advertise on their platform.

Boden revealed that Starling Bank has stopped all paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram until parent company Meta starts checking that financial services adverts are from FCA authorised firms, as it has promised it will do.

“We want to protect our customers and our brand integrity. And we can no longer pay to advertise on a platform alongside scammers who are going after the savings of our customers and those of other banks,” wrote Boden explaining the decision.