Case 1

Starling Bank: A marketplace of financials solutions

The bank has a near complete financial services platform, boasting, borrowing business,
insurance and wealth management solutions. The convenience of having all these solutions in
one place is likely to help in attracting new customers, as well as retaining existing
customers. Furthermore, the bank appears to be far ahead of many of its larger rivals in terms
of the banking as a platform model. This gives it a ‘first-mover’ advantage while
strengthening its reputation as an innovation bank. In addition, Starling appears to have a
strong, ‘feel-good’ brand because of its customer-centric ethos and ethical approach to
banking. This is likely to increase customer loyalty because it appeals to customers who are
disillusioned with mainstream banks. The fact that starling has a de facto branch network via
its partnership with royal mail gives it an edge over its digital-only fintech rivals, particularly
with regard to business customers.
The bank relies on external partners to complete its suite of financial solutions. In this way
if there is problem with one of these providers, it could damage starling’s reputation.
Furthermore, as some of these providers are also on other platforms, this could undermine
customer loyalty, tough Starling technically owns the relationship with each customer, some
customers may be more amenable to switching to a competing platform if they see a familiar
financial provider on it. This could become especially relevant if one of Starling’s providers
stop receiving the bank’s customers. Furthermore, the bank’s stringent ethics policy could
become a problem if one of its partners fails to live up to Starling’s standards.