Starling Bank Sets Sights on North America Expansion
Weekly news up to Monday, 30th of June 2025
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Revolut Ltd., Europe’s largest digital bank, is acquiring Argentina’s Banco Cetelem, a small local lender owned by BNP Paribas, amid its push into Latin America.
The London-headquartered company confirmed its arrival in Argentina in a statement after a Bloomberg report earlier Thursday, and it’s already begun operations in Mexico and Brazil.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Chase launches UK credit card.
⭐️ CaixaBank rolls out iPhone Tap to Pay.
⭐️ Starling Bank sets sights on North America expansion.
⭐️ BBVA launches a 100% digital bank in Germany.
🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
UK 🇬🇧
Zopa launches current accounts to go toe-to-toe with Revolut. The bank aims to serve over 5 million customers in the next three to four years and over 10 million customers in five to seven years, targeting deposits of £1,500 to £2,000 per account.
NAB hires Lloyds Bank's Pete Steel as inaugural digital, data and AI Chief. He will lead NAB's digital data and AI teams and initiatives, and be accountable for design, customer onboarding and NAB's digital bank Ubank. Keep reading
10x Banking goes for growth in APAC with Constantinople tie-up. The collaboration sees two major technology companies coming together to provide banks, mutuals, and financial institutions around the world with access to best-in-class banking technology architecture and solutions.
Revolut has reached 60 million customers. With over 60,000 new users joining daily, the company is steadily advancing toward CEO Nik Storonsky’s ambitious goal of 100 million users and $100B in revenue. Continue reading
EUROPE 🇪🇺
Silverflow partners with Deutsche Bank for a European payments platform. The collaboration enabled the bank to minimise integration time as compared to legacy deployments, thus onboarding clients faster. This initiative demonstrated how modern payment infrastructure transforms banking operations.
Qonto names Malte Dous Managing Director for Central Europe. In this role, he will oversee the company’s operations in Germany and lead expansion efforts in neighbouring markets such as Austria. He will also focus on product enhancements and local partnerships aimed at meeting the specific needs of German businesses.
USA 🇺🇸
Goldman Sachs launches AI assistant firmwide. The GS AI assistant will help Goldman employees in summarising complex documents and drafting initial content, to perform data analysis, according to the internal memo. Goldman joins a long list of big banks already leveraging the technology to shape their operations.
DXC and Thought Machine partner to accelerate banking modernisation. By leveraging DCX’s full-service management and Thought Machine’s core banking technology, the solution aims to enable banks to accelerate time to market for new digital products.
CANADA 🇨🇦
Zafin introduces transaction enrichment to unlock loyalty. This new capability enhances the platform by transforming raw transaction data into rich, contextual insights. It enables banks to deliver more personalized experiences, strengthen customer engagement, and lay the foundation for modern loyalty and relationship banking.
LATAM
Belvo and Ualá join forces to facilitate access to credit through employment data. This will allow Ualá to make immediate decisions without relying on information from credit reporting agencies. Read more
Nubank and Pibank are disrupting traditional Colombian banking in the credit and debit card segment. Nubank has entered the top tier of savings account providers, offering high interest rates up to around 11–13 % E.A. Meanwhile, Pibank has surged into the market with savings accounts yielding approximately 12 % E.A.
Nu, Revolut, and other neobanks will take time to become profitable. The new digital banks in Mexico will face pressures on profitability and asset quality "for a considerable time" as they go through the process of entering the market and establishing themselves, according to Fitch Ratings.
Nubank prepares the arrival of a physical chip at NuCel. Analysts point out that NuCel users can now order a physical SIM directly through the Nubank platform, with home delivery at no additional cost. With the physical chip, it will be possible to increase the addressable base of the offer.
ASIA
KakaoBank targets stablecoin market with 12 trademark filings. It has filed multiple trademark applications related to its stablecoin business in a bid to secure first-mover advantage in the fast-growing market. The applications cover three categories: cryptocurrency-related software, cryptocurrency financial-transaction services, and cryptocurrency mining.
OCEANIA
ANZ launches instant payments. ANZ customers in Samoa can now send and receive instant payments following the bank’s integration with the Samoa Automated Transfer System (SATS). Keep reading
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Revolut hires Béatrice Cossa-Dumurgier as Western Europe CEO. As part of her new role, Béatrice will oversee the development of Revolut’s activities in Western Europe, with a key focus on securing the company’s banking licence from the French banking regulator, the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), and the European Central Bank (ECB).