Really exciting news in the fin-tech space this week. A Romanian neobank called Salt Bank which is powered by Engine by Starling launches this month disrupting the Romanian banking market dominated by traditional banks.
Key figures such as Anne Boden (Founder of Starling) and Sam Everington (CEO of Engine) from Starling and Gabriela Cristina Nistor and Robert Anghel from Salt are behind this revolutionary and disruptive move to competitors such as Revolut which have seen increased usage in Romania as many banks there have unpleasant digital banking solutions or even really expensive solutions overall for those who travel.
I am really pleased to see Starling Bank and Banca Transilvania (referred to as BT from now on) coming together and building such a great product in a market very desperate for digital solutions like this one. I also really hope that Salt Bank will use both companies’ expertise such as the amazing customer support from both Starling and BT but also Starling’s brilliant digital banking solution alongside ZERO fee structure to build a very robust and capable offering forcing all other players to evolve and innovate!
Salt’s new app incorporates a friendly and intuitive interface which can also be found already in Starling’s app with the expertise of BT from their presence in the Romanian retail banking market.
I welcome Salt Bank especially as I was a customer for both Banca Translivania which in my experience is one of the two friendliest banks there and Starling which is the best (and easiest) bank I ever used.
I would expect Salt Bank to incorporate features such as Virtual Cards or “split the bill” functionality down the line to take on Revolut. We can also ultimately hope for their expansion in Europe in the very distant future competing with solutions such as Revolut, N26 and more.
