Job adverts indicate Starling Bank is getting ready for its Irish launch

Starling Bank launch was pegged for 2020 – but lockdown delayed licence talks

Anne Boden, founder of Starling Bank, is a former AIB director

Sean Pollock Email

April 03 2022 02:30 AM

Starling Bank, a digital challenger bank headquartered in London, has said the brand is to launch in “Ireland and beyond”. The mention of the launch came in an Irish job advert posted last week, suggesting the bank is getting closer to offering its services here.

In its advert for a Dublin-based head of marketing at Starling International, the company said the successful applicant “will have the opportunity to help launch the Starling brand in Ireland and beyond”.

This could also suggest Starling is getting closer to succeeding in its application for a banking licence which would permit it operate in Europe. Licences are issued by the European Central Bank (ECB), with the Central Bank of Ireland assessing applications in cooperation with it.

In 2019, the Irish Times first reported that Starling Bank planned to set up an Irish hub and apply for a banking licence here, which would allow it to expand into Europe. It has already established a subsidiary in Dublin to potentially service the Irish market and springboard into other European markets.

In 2020, Anne Boden, founder of Starling Bank and a former AIB director, spoke about the challenger bank’s international ambitions following a £60m funding round. At the time, she said the cash would help Starling launch in Ireland later that year after Brexit-related uncertainty caused a delay in its expansion plans.

“Without Brexit, we could have used our passport to expand across Europe,” she said. “It’s fair to say the uncertainty slowed us down, but now we have certainty and are fully charged and ready to go.”

In August 2020, the Irish Times reported Starling had resumed talks with the Central Bank over securing a banking licence after being “temporarily put on ice during lockdown”.

Last week, the Sunday Independent found job adverts posted by Starling on its website for numerous senior positions. These included head positions in marketing, credit risk, financial risk, non-financial risk, and treasury.

An advert for the head of treasury role said the position had become available due to the “expected rapid growth of the group internationally”.

The advert said Starling Bank has surpassed 2.6 million accounts since it launched in 2014. This included 400,000 business accounts for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, total deposits at the bank have surpassed over £8bn in the same period.

The potential for Starling to launch in Ireland comes as both Ulster Bank and KBC prepare to exit the Irish market.

Last week, Vivid Money, a Berlin-based challenger bank, withdrew its application to secure an e-money licence from the Central Bank. Revolut recently dropped plans to use an e-money licence it had secured from the Central Bank, instead deciding to use a full banking licence awarded by the ECB to offer banking services – including personal loans – to customers here.

Starling declined to comment.