British digital challenger bank offering mobile banking services. Founded by Anne Boden, who resigned in 2023. Known for app-based banking and SME lending. Fined £29M by FCA in 2024 for AML failures.
Starling Bank reported progress on gender diversity: over a third of new hires between April 2024 and April 2025 were women (up from 24%), and the median pay gap reduced from 9.1% to 8.4%. Senior management gender representation exceeds both the fintech industry average (30%) and UK banking average (40%). The bank is a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter.
In November 2024, Starling Bank mandated hybrid employees work in the office 50% of the time, despite having more than three times as many employees as in-office desks. Internal Slack posts called the change 'rammed down everyone's throats' and accused new CEO Raman Bhatia of creating a 'bland grey corporate hellscape.' Glassdoor reviews said the bank treats staff like 'subservient children' and the mandate caused 'complete dismay.' Employees have been resigning in response.
The Financial Conduct Authority fined Starling Bank £28,959,426 for systemic failures in anti-money laundering and sanctions screening controls. Since 2017, Starling's automated screening system had only checked customers against a fraction of the UK sanctions list. Despite agreeing to FCA restrictions, Starling opened over 54,000 accounts for 49,000 high-risk customers between September 2021 and November 2023. The FCA said controls 'did not keep pace' with growth from 43,000 to 3.6 million customers.
Starling Bank's published ethics statement includes an explicit commitment: 'We will never donate to a political party, politician or party political campaign group.'