Starling Bank was founded in 2014 by Anne Boden, a banking veteran who had spent decades at traditional institutions like Allied Irish Banks and RBS. She built Starling to be the antithesis of the banks she’d worked at — digital-first, fee-transparent, and customer-focused.
Starling holds a full UK banking license and is regulated by the FCA and PRA. Deposits are FSCS-protected. Unlike Monzo, which grew primarily through consumer accounts, Starling found significant traction in business banking early on. Its business accounts — free for sole traders and small businesses — captured a market that the big UK banks had largely ignored.
The product suite includes personal current accounts, joint accounts, business accounts, euro accounts, and child accounts (Kite). Starling’s Marketplace connects third-party financial services like pensions, insurance, and accounting software directly within the app.
Starling was the first UK digital bank to reach profitability, achieving it in October 2022 — well ahead of its competitors. For the fiscal year ending March 2024, the bank reported pre-tax profits exceeding 300 million pounds, a remarkable figure for a challenger bank.
Starling also operates an Engine business, licensing its core banking technology to other financial institutions globally. Anne Boden stepped down as CEO in 2023, succeeded by Raman Bhatia. The bank has over 4 million accounts and is headquartered in London with offices in Cardiff, Manchester, Dublin, and Southampton.
