100 times this. People who talk about digital as a channel fundamentally misunderstand it - it’s about culture and mindset. You can buy the tech, but if you don’t change the company…
The only way it would work would be to in the spirit of a reverse acquisition. Let the Starling business rapidly scale up, maintaining its tech culture (assuming it has one - it’s not very open, which isn’t a positive sign, but is likely to be miles ahead of RBS) and then persuade customers to move over to the Starling product, away from the RBS legacy. @j06 put it well in the RBS Challenger Bank thread:
Alas these types of acquisition rarely work well. Mostly due to ego and “we know best” attitude.
(I’d also take the opportunity to spin off the branch network and fundamentally rethink the bank. But that’d have the execs choking on their whatever).
As for Starling, we’re assuming they don’t want to be acquired. Maybe they do? Every startup needs an exit…
If they do want to remain independent, the only way I can see for them (if the RBS thing works out) is to refocus and become a banking platform. Cede the customer to Monzo. But focus on digital-age wholesale / commodity services…