Starling Bank Chat (Part 2)

Probably no lol

Well, if you remember, Jack was diddled out of a cow for a few beans, so no. Can be any currency :joy:

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Don’t be so rude, they were magic beans remember? :yum:.

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Monopoly money? :thinking::joy:

I had no problem to top up my Coinbase account from Starling, a few days ago :blush:

By which I mean just some money to play with :slight_smile:

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Exactly

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Starling got a bit of a beating here :joy:

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Ouch:

The former Tory minister, who has pushed for greater transparency around the scheme, said from “what little data” he was able to gather while in government, Starling “were one of the worst when it came to validating the turnover of businesses or submitting suspicious activity reports”.

“It seems to me that they took this as a God-sent opportunity to swell their balance sheet by a factor of 50 times in barely less than a year, with no risk to themselves and 100% risk to the taxpayer,” Agnew said. He claimed that it was a “cost-free marketing exercise to build their loan book and so their company valuation”.

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I don’t blame Starling, I blame the rule setters.

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It clearly was an excellent opportunity for that purpose so it seems weird to blame them for what is surely a primary purpose for the very existence of any bank (if not its main purpose).

IIRC they were accused at the time for being too strict and refusing too many loans.

As @Revels said: The problem seems to be more with those setting the rules …

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Disgruntled man leaves job because treasury didn’t put in protections for fraud during COVID pandemic. Then spits dummy out over a bank.

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Applicants are required to self-declare they meet the eligibility criteria for the Scheme. Applications from eligible borrowers will be subject to customer fraud, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.

My emphasis. I thought banks weren’t allowed to conduct extra checks, and I recall Starling getting a lot of stick from MSE for appearing to conduct credit checks, when actually it clarified its AML and KYC checks were embedded in soft credit checks, and that hard credit checks were carried out only for new customers (which is normal).

The BBB told us that while lenders cannot generally undertake credit checks for bounce back loan applications, banks can credit check applicants who are new customers and are opening an account with them for the first time.

Lenders can also do anti-fraud checks, known as anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) checks, on existing customers applying for bounce back loans – and these may be ‘embedded’ in a lender’s existing credit checks, in which case the lender must disregard ‘pure credit’ related flags (ie, ignore any info purely relating to a customer’s creditworthiness when deciding whether to lend). Starling said it did do this with existing customers, but that credit checks on them were disregarded unless they gave rise to fraud concerns, in line with the rules.

When asked why it had incorrectly told customers they wouldn’t be credit checked, Starling told us its ‘customer declaration’ form (shown below) was provided by the BBB and couldn’t be changed, and that the term merely means the customer is waiving their rights to a claim against the bank for mis-selling.

It’s worth noting Starling’s not alone in doing ‘soft’ credit checks on new customers. HSBC, the other main bounce back loan option for those applying as new customers, also does it.

(Source)

My suspicion is the Starling was highly efficient at getting these loans out the door, and now this ex-civil servant, who would always have been worried about the lack of responsibility built in to the scheme by the Chancellor, is shouting about his cold feet.

I guess we’ll find out, but I highly doubt Anne Boden would gamble her banking licence with shonky business practices.

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Always thought Starling wouldn’t have made profit if they hadn’t been awarded this, but I guess two sides to every story.

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Probably. Ex-fart in a tornado.

After looking at Starlings most recent annual report, I think they’ll likely be profitable on a temporary basis, and then drop back into loss making, unless something drastic changes by then.

The loans will only give a guaranteed uplift for the first twelve months, after that it’s anyones guess.

I think they’re anticipating this conundrum too, by implementing new limits and fees. e.g new post office fees.

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I bet a credit card and loans for personal accounts is very near.

Their app doesn’t drive much for personal customers, no open banking either to give it some oomf.

I guess if people like basic then :man_shrugging:t3::sweat_smile:

We called it?

@Peter_G makes an interesting point, however:

It’ll be interesting to see how their covid-19 loans work out for them over the next few months. I’d predict a rough ride.

Well, its biggest market is Banking–as–a–Service. The personal and business accounts are really live demonstrations of that provision.

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