Salt Bank makes digital debut in Romania powered by Starling Bank’s BaaS
Salt Bank has become Romania’s newest digital challenger with the launch of its app-based offering this month.
Salt Bank launches in Romania
The Bucharest-based challenger, which operates as a subsidiary of Banca Transilvania Financial Group, has debuted its retail banking services including 3% current accounts with digital wallet compatibility, mixed term deposits, a multicurrency card supporting 16 different currencies, and a savings account offering called Spaces.
To rally support for its launch, the bank launched its founder programme, rewarding customers for early enrolment with so-called “founder points”, which can either be redeemed against a monetary value or exchanged for shares in the start-up, “if we list on the stock exchange in the future”.
Salt Bank previously claimed last month via LinkedIn that 60,000 “founders” had pre-enrolled for its services, before later extending the scale of the scheme to 100,000.
To power its launch, the bank enlisted Engine, the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) technology platform of UK-based Starling Bank, in a partnership announced last November.
According to the vendor’s earlier statements, the bank is leveraging the platform to onboard customers digitally, process payments, manage unsecured lending products, and monitor financial crime, as well as manage payment operations, loan servicing and collections.
Gabriela Nistor, CEO of Salt Bank, said that the partnership with Starling Bank serves its ambition to “disrupt the banking market in Romania” and cites the platform’s success in powering Starling’s UK operations as a driver behind its adoption.
Providing an update on LinkedIn this month, Sam Everington, CEO of Engine by Starling, says that the platform was able to build and launch Salt Bank “in just under 12 months” and likens Nistor to Starling founder Anne Boden for “asking penetrating questions to really drill into the detail” throughout the partnership.
