The interesting operation Starling bank is increasingly looking to SMEs and bigger firms in its quest to grow. They already have products available for small businesses but it looks like they are expanding their offerings to them and are also seeking to increase their appeal across the board.
Speaking at the MoneyLive Lending 2018 event held in London, a Starling executive explained where she thought the company was heading and elucidated some of their ambitions with specific focus the SME market:
We started with a retail current account and then we launched business accounts, first for limited companies with a single director and now for sole traders as well, and soon for multi-director limited companies. We’re very much focusing on the space of one to 10 employees. We obviously want to be in the U.S. as well. We want to be a global bank and we want to eventually expand in Asia, but not currently. We’re first looking at EU and the U.S..
– Megan Caywood, Chief Platform Officer, Starling bank
Starling initially announced its entry into the business banking sphere in 2017 roughly four months after it launched its app-only current account services for consumers. More recently, the upstart crow bank rolled out bank accounts for 17- and 18-year olds to showing that it is very keen to offer innovative services.
There can be no doubt that Starling is interesting because it’s approaching the challenges of banking differently to the fusty old timers. But is it too much of a risk to pin your colours as a business user to a nearly new bank, even though the established players are so clearly failing British small businesses, especially when it comes to lending? Are you already a customer?
