Starling Bank’s Engine service has scaled over the last several years to countries such as Australia and Canada, as its Chief Executive revealed it has held talks with US banks for a similar market entry.
Starling Bank’s expansion strategy into the US could see it become a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) disruptor to traditional providers.
As first reported by The Financial Times, central to these plans is Engine, Starling’s SaaS platform that enables banks to digitise their core infrastructures to boost payment speed, customer onboarding, and deliver digital-first customer experiences.
The engine was first launched in the UK in 2022 as a separate entity from Starling. The SaaS platform has since become integrated into Canada’s Tangerine Bank, Romania’s Salt Bank and Australia’s AMP Bank Go as part of multi-year agreements with Starling.
Recognising Engine’s ability to scale and expand across the world, Starling is now eyeing the US market. According to the Chief Executive of Engine, Sam Everington, the company has a major US banking client in the “$5bn-50bn asset range” lined up for early next year.
“There’s a lot of consolidation going on in the small end of the regional banking markets. So we think the time is right,” added Everington to The Financial Times.
Starling has been working alongside Deloitte and PwC to find further US clients for Engine.
Cause for disruption
In April 2025, Engine announced its first US subsidiary, Engine by Starling Services US LLC., registered in Delaware and headquartered in New York.
Since then, Jody Bhagat was announced as its President in September 2025 and revealed plans to invest up to $50m in its North American footprint.
Within Bhagat’s appointment announcement, Engine revealed it sees “significant market opportunities amongst the region’s 4,000+ mid-tier banks and credit unions”, a segment initially highlighted by Everington.
He told The Financial Times this segment was primed for disruption due to mid-tier banks often relying on the same software providers, such as Fiserv, FIS and Jack Henry & Associates.
“The market is absolutely dominated by incumbent system providers that I think between them have over 90% of the market,” said Everington.
As part of a Fortune Business Insights report, the North American SaaS market accounted for just over 44%, or $4.94bn, of the global $13.2bn market value in 2025.
However, the report stated large banks dominated the SaaS market in 2024 due to the need to process significantly more transaction volumes to more customers. This leaves mid-size banks potentially underserved and available for disruptors like Engine to gain market share.
Starling is no stranger to being a disruptor after launching its digital bank in 2014 to provide a modern alternative to established UK banks such as NatWest and Lloyd’s. Starling is also part of the digital banking wave in the UK that also saw the emergence of Revolut and Monzo.
How outdated is US banking infrastructure?
Similar to many banks across the globe, there still remains a large number of US banks which rely on legacy systems.
As US banks are decades, even centuries old, legacy systems provide them a stable and reliable infrastructure that maintains high levels of payment processing. There is also a range of risks associated with migrating to modern, cloud-native systems, which come with the reassessment of compliance laws and lengthy integration timescales.
COBOL, one of the most popular current legacy systems, is still being used by 43% of US banks as of May 2025.
Despite this, legacy systems also come with their own pitfalls. New modern security risks such as AI-generated fraud, being prone to recurring down times and perhaps above all else, banks could face being left behind by new digital-first banks like Starling as customers seek for greater user experiences and personalisation.
“The North American market is highly competitive, and many banks and credit unions feel constrained by legacy technology,” said Bhagat upon his appointment.
“Digital-forward financial institutions are seeking a partner that can deliver technology transformation that drives real business results. Tried and tested in Europe and Australia, Engine by Starling has strong proof points demonstrating how the platform helps banks better acquire and serve customers.”
With past experience of working at traditional banks such as U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, not only will Bhagat be tasked with scaling Engine in the US and North America, but to become a genuine disruptor in a market segment primed for growth.
