Digital bank, Starling, has confirmed that its first office in the North will be in Manchester city centre.
It intends to create up to 1000 new jobs at Landmark in St Peter’s Square. These will be across operations, engineering, data science and cybersecurity.
The digital lender, which already employs 2,500 people in London, Cardiff, Southampton and Dublin, has chosen Manchester as the home for its Northern expansion due to the city’s deep pool of fintech talent. The city is home to the largest regional FinTech ecosystem in the UK.
The Manchester office will also be its Centre of Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), housing a financial innovation hub, which it says will “drive the government’s ambitions to make the UK a technology and science superpower.”
Starling is set to create 1,000 new jobs in Manchester to support the company’s next phase as it continues to build industry-disrupting banking technology for its personal and business account customers. The strategic move comes as the digital bank has opened more than 3.5 million accounts and launched its software-as-a-service offering, Engine by Starling. The bank has selected Manchester for its next base due to its strong tech talent pool and rich cultural and creative heritage.
Anne Boden, Founder and CEO at Starling Bank says, “Manchester is one of the most important tech hubs in the UK. London’s success as a global fintech hub enables it to spread wealth and jobs throughout the UK and the wider economy. That’s exactly what we’re doing with this office in Manchester,”
Susanna Yallop, Chief People Officer at Starling Bank says, “We’ve had some outstanding applications for our roles in Manchester already, affirming the city’s place as the tech capital of the North. We want to offer our talent the best of the best; the facilities at Landmark made it the obvious choice for us,”
Deborah Walker, Head of inward investment for Financial, Professional, and Business Services at MIDAS said: “Manchester is the largest regional tech hub outside of London, home to more than 10,000 tech businesses benefiting from our digital expertise and ambitious, collaborative nature.
“We’re excited to welcome Starling to this community not only for their best-in-class banking but their ethics. Manchester city-region is proud of our heritage in disrupting the norm and our history of empowering women dating back as far as Emmeline Pankhurst; here we align with Starling and look forward to working with them to take the financial services sector to new heights.”
Starling joins an impressive tenant roster at Landmark in St Peter’s Square and is the fourth new occupier to sign up in recent weeks with over 41,000 sq ft of lettings secured in Q4 2022 alone to Santander UK, global business platform Xero UK and global audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK. Additional occupiers in Landmark include; HSBC UK, Allianz Insurance, Grant Thornton, JLL and social enterprise Change Please.
