Come over to my Marketplace says Starling Bank
Starling Bank’s fintech ecosystem goes live
UK-based challenger bank Starling has gone live with its Marketplace, a new ecosystem of financial products accessible through its app.
As reported in June, Starling said it would launch Marketplace at some point. This idea was first discussed back in April, when its developer portal went live.
Now the marketplace is alive and kicking and offers products from other fintech providers – and in the future lifestyle products. These partners integrate with Starling Bank using their open banking and PSD2 compliant APIs.
Megan Caywood, chief platform officer at Starling Bank, says: “Starling is built on the belief that customers should have ownership over their data. This is how they can build a better relationship with their money. The Starling Marketplace is central to turning this belief into something tangible.”
Starling adds that going live is “particularly significant” for the banking industry given that PSD2 (Payments Services Directive 2) comes into effect in 2018, requiring all banks to open their data and infrastructure to fulfil regulatory requirements. Launching ahead of this deadline, Starling says it is the “first bank to have fully open, PSD2 ready APIs that allow collaboration between fintech companies”.
Starling also welcomes Flux, a rewards and receipt platform, as the first integrated partner to sit within the Marketplace.
Flux sends real-time receipts to the Starling app when a customer pays with their Starling card at any of Flux’s retail partners. In the future, Flux will also allow Starling customers to get automated loyalty points with cashback for any loyalty freebies that have been collected.
Also today (12 September), Flux closed its $1.5 million seed round led by PROfounders. The money will be used to “hire across key roles, particularly engineering”.
My Starling’s clever time
In terms of more news starring Starling, then has been other activity.
It received a banking passport into Ireland. The bank says this is “its first step in its plans to provide services to European markets”.
In March, Starling unveiled its mobile app and welcomed the first customers through its digital doors to join a beta testing programme.
