Starling Bank has expanded its IT services reach into New Zealand, its fourth country outside the UK.
Banks are increasingly turning their IT skills and resources into profit centres as financial services and non-financial services businesses look for modern digital platforms to offer their customers.
The UK challenger bank has now penned a deal to supply its banking-as-a-service (BaaS) software, known as Engine, to SBS Bank in New Zealand.
The tech sales operation of Starling Bank was originally launched in the UK in 2018, offering businesses in various sectors the chance to provide retail banking services through its application programming interfaces, and rebadged the service as Engine in 2022. Its first BaaS customer was savings fintech Raisin, and in 2021, it went on to expand its tech sales operation into continental Europe. Following the latest deal, it adds New Zealand to an international customer base of Canada, Australia and Romania.
SBS is the first mutual organisation using its BaaS. Mark McLean, CEO at the bank, said the deal will “create a more modern and secure experience for our members and enable our people to continue to deliver the outstanding service they provide today”.
In April 2025, Starling expanded its BaaS offering into North America, targeting mid-tier banks, with its first deal with Canada’s Tangerine. In Romania, it works with Salt Bank, and in Australia, it counts AMP as a partner.
Starling was founded in 2014, and it received its banking licence in 2016, launching the following year. It was designed by Anne Boden, a banker with an IT background, and aims to use modern technology to make banking as convenient as possible, while enabling customers to benefit from the data they generate in their everyday lives.
It’s not just banks looking at BaaS offerings. Embedded finance – which integrates payments, lending, banking and insurance services directly into non-financial digital products – is an increasingly common integration for enterprises.
The rise of BaaS platforms has helped fuel this in recent years. According to a study from Research and Markets, the global market for BaaS was valued at $29.5bn in 2024, and it is projected to reach $74.8bn by 2030, growing 16.8% a year.
For non-banking businesses to provide financial services, they need to be regulated and have access to expensive banking tech, so firms are instead using financial services offered by banks and fintechs. The application programming interface-driven services are regulated through the bank, which also provides the tech infrastructure.
In the past, financial services firms and retail businesses have partnered with banks to offer financial services, whereby they brand the front end, but the banking service, which includes the systems and regulatory approval, is provided by a traditional bank. However, demand for financial services to be embedded into products has changed this.
Traditional UK high street bank NatWest is also building a business in BaaS as demand soars. Through its Boxed operation, the company is providing the tech for its digital small and medium-sized enterprise business bank, known as Mettle, while offering the same capabilities to external businesses that want to provide their customers with financial services. “Off the back of the technology supporting Mettle, we built out a BaaS proposition,” Andrew Ellis, who heads the Boxed division, recently told Computer Weekly.
Its BaaS is already used by Saga; the Automobile Association for lending and savings, which offers services to the over-50s; and three large customers that have not yet been announced.
Through the service, which went live in July 2025, the financial products are underwritten by NatWest Bank, but the tech and support is done by NatWest Boxed.