UK's Starling signs software deal with Canada's Tangerine, plans 100 hires

By Lawrence White

LONDON (Reuters) -Starling Group has signed a 10-year agreement to upgrade core software at Tangerine, a Canadian digital bank owned by Bank of Nova Scotia, as the British-based bank continues its global expansion, Starling said on Tuesday.

The deal is the biggest yet for the British digital bank's Engine by Starling software services subsidiary, and will see Tangerine migrate its digital banking operations to Engine's cloud-based Software-as-a-Service platform.

The partnership follows Engine’s expansion into North America earlier this year, with new offices in Toronto and New York, and marks Engine's first North American client. The unit, separated from Starling Bank in 2022, already provides services to Salt Bank in Romania and AMP Bank GO in Australia.

As part of its latest expansion, Engine will hire more than 100 staff, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Starling, which has grown its customer base to 4.6 million in 2025 from 43,000 in 2017, is one of several British-based digital banks that saw explosive growth in the last decade but have battled to sustain revenue growth from traditional account services amid cut-throat competition.

Starling has focused in recent years on expanding its provision of software services to other banks around the world, diversifying its revenues in the process.

The lender's rapid rise has not come without setbacks, as Britain's financial watchdog last year fined Starling Bank 29 million pounds ($39 million) for lax financial crime controls.

Starling says it has since rectified the issues and invested in its governance.

Tangerine, previously known as ING Direct, was started in 1997 and has more than 2 million clients. It was rebranded after Scotiabank bought the business from Netherlands-based ING Groep in 2012 for C$3.1 billion ($2.2 billion).

($1 = 0.7451 pounds)

($1 = 1.4024 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Lawrence WhiteEditing by Mark Potter)