Starling chief quits challenger bank she set up in 2014 as profits soar

The boss of challenger bank Starling is stepping down nine years after founding it.

Anne Boden, the first British woman to start a new bank, said she would relinquish the role of chief executive at the end of next month.

She will remain on the board as a non-executive director as well as a shareholder with a 4.9 per cent stake worth £122.5million.

Boden also highlighted her ambition for the company she founded in 2014 to float on the stock market – predicted to happen within two years.

‘Starling is bigger than just one person. It is a piece of infrastructure that is important to the UK. We provide a real role in society,’ she said.

She said it was not appropriate’ to have a shareholder as chief executive, due to potential conflicts of interest.

Chief operating officer John Mountain will fill the role until a replacement is appointed. Starling reported a record profit of £195million for the year to the end of March – more than six times the previous year’s £32million. 

Revenues ballooned to £453million from £216million as it cashed in on rising interest rates.

As a digital-only bank, it has no branches and allows customers to run accounts on their phones. 

It has over 3.6m accounts and a funding round last year valued it at £2.5billion. Boden, 63, set it up after the 2008 financial crisis.

She told the BBC: ‘I was ashamed to be part of that whole regime that had let the country down. 

‘I wanted to found a bank that was really good for customers, that was fair. And people never believed I could do it and be profitable. So here we are, we’ve done it.’