The biggest gainer in current account switches, Starling’s move into the mortgage market, BNY Mellon’s first Chief Growth Officer: news in financial services marketing you may have missed this week.
Starling, Virgin and Monzo lead in current account switches
The Current Account Switching Service (CASS) released new data revealing that in the first quarter of 2021, Starling Bank was the most switched to bank. In total, Starling gained a net 17,769 customers through the service.
It was closely followed by Virgin Money, with 17,769 net gains. Monzo, Nationwide and Bank of Scotland then followed with 7,744, 1474 and 1448 net gains respectively.
The CASS, which launched in 2013, hugely simplifies the process of changing banking provider. In total, 7.3 million people have switched banks since the service launched with 646,569 in the last year.
Starling moves into mortgage market with new acquisition
This weeks also Starling announce the acquisition of a specialist buy-to-let mortgage lender.
Starling paid £50 million in cash and shares for Fleet Mortgages, based in Hampshire. It provides mortgages to professional and semi-professional buy-to-let landlords through mortgage adviser distribution channels.
Anne Boden, CEO of Starling, said: “The acquisition of Fleet Mortgages is the start of our move into mortgages as an asset class and builds on a number of forward-flow arrangements that we’re doing with leading non-bank lenders.”
BNY Mellon appoints first ever Chief Growth Officer
BNY Mellon has hired Akash Shah as Chief Growth Officer.
The newly created role includes responsibility for strategy, global client management and marketing and communications.
The move is an internal appointment; Akash has spent three years as Head of Strategy, taking over the additional responsibility of global client management last year.
BNY Mellon CEO Todd Gibbons said: “In his new role, he will continue to drive momentum across our business, and be a force multiplier in BNY Mellon’s ability to seize the growth opportunities in the marketplace, while continuing to deliver innovative solutions to our clients.”
Mortgage lending rises in June ahead of stamp duty increase
The Bank of England reported that net mortgage borrowing hit a record high of £17.9 billion in June, ahead of the lower stamp duty rates beginning to taper off from 1 July.
The number of approvals for house purchases were 81,300 in June, down from 86,900 in April.