Handbag stars in Starling Bank debit card debut
I wonder what their favourite colour is…
“We have the licence, we have the technology, now we have the card.” New UK challenger bank Starling has got its first batch of debit cards as it continues to build its infrastructure.
Like some kind of shopaholic’s symbolic frolic, the bank detailed its London shopping adventure with a blog post.
This had a point as it wanted to prove the tech worked with the purchase of a purple handbag. Not a nod to Imperial Rome, but instead Starling‘s brand colour and a clear sign of its banking empire ambitions.
Starling says the next step is for its team to “finish crafting the app” with the input of the wait list community.
We got it
Behind the (shopping) scenes, Starling recently received a restricted UK banking licence and aims to launch to customers by January 2017.
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.
Mark my words
Prior to the licence development, CTO Mark Hipperson, who was also the bank’s co-founder, 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”.
