UK-based digital bank Starling Group has signed a 10-year agreement with Canada’s Tangerine Bank, a subsidiary of the Bank of Nova Scotia, to modernize the lender’s digital infrastructure. The deal is the largest yet for Starling’s technology arm, Engine by Starling, and will see Tangerine move its operations to a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.
The partnership is a major milestone in Starling’s North American expansion and marks Engine’s first client in the region. Engine opened new offices in Toronto and New York earlier this year and plans to hire over 100 new employees to support its growing international operations.
Engine, spun off from Starling Bank in 2022, already provides its digital banking software to Salt Bank in Romania and AMP Bank GO in Australia. The unit is central to Starling’s strategy to diversify revenue as competition among UK digital banks intensifies.
Founded in 2014, Starling has rapidly expanded its customer base to 4.6 million but has also faced regulatory challenges. In 2024, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority fined the bank £29 million for lapses in financial crime oversight, an issue the company says it has since corrected.
Tangerine, formerly known as ING Direct, was launched in 1997 and now serves more than 2 million clients across Canada.
