Starling Bank has reportedly decided to buy another mortgage book for an estimated price of £1 billion.
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This comes after Starling acquired Fleet Mortgages for £50m about half a year ago.
The digital bank has bought the home loans portfolio from Kensington Mortgages, a specialist lender.
Kensington is known for focusing on mortgages for customers who might not get the best deals elsewhere. Customers like that are usually overlooked by high street banks, such as the self-employed.
Fleet Mortgages, based in Hampshire, also focuses on lending to professional landlords through advisers.
Anne Boden, Starling CEO, has written in a foreword in Banking On It, Starling that she no longer sees fellow startups like Monzo as her chief rivals, but the UK’s largest incumbent banks.
“The extraordinary experiences of the year 2020 made it clearer than ever that our competitors are now Lloyds, Barclays et al,” she wrote.
Barclays, which she said has around a 15% share of the market, is “now firmly in our sights”.
Starling is valued at around £1.1billion. Starling’s deposits have grown to £5.8billion, although its total lending lags at £2.2billion.
However, Kensington and Starling declined to comment.
