Starling Bank is opening up its business banking accounts to larger SMEs, as competition in the market intensifies.
Starling’s new multi-owner account comes 16 months after it launched its mobile business bank account for single-person businesses, which now has almost 60,000 customers.
It follows the award to Starling in April of a £100 million grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund (CIF), a body created to boost competition in SME banking
Starling says it is using the grant to build a full suite of digital banking products, intelligent forecasting tools, and digitally-enabled relationship management functions as well as lending products.
Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank says: “Opening up our business account to SMEs with more than one PSC (person of significant control) will give hundreds of thousands more companies access to our features, meaning they can manage their finances conveniently on their smartphone without having to worry about where their nearest bank branch is and when it will be open."
Starling is one a host of new entrants to the business banking market, which is currently dominated by the Big Four lenders who claim an 85% market share.
Coming up on the rails is Nationwide Building Society, another recipient of RBS bail out funds, which yesterday struck separate deals with MasterCard and ClearBank, as it puts the building blocks in place for the launch of its own business banking offering.
Starling rival Revolut meanwhile has been burnishing its business account offering, today rolling out two new fee-free accounts for small businesses looking to operate overseas.