Starling chief quits challenger bank she set up in 2014 as profits soar
Starling chief quits challenger bank she founded in 2014 and calls for it to go public
The boss of challenger bank Starling resigns nine years after its founding.
Anne Boden, the first British woman to start a new bank, said she would step down as CEO at the end of next month.
She remains on the board as a non-executive director and as a shareholder with a 4.9 per cent stake worth £122.5 million.
Boden also emphasized her ambition to take the company she founded in 2014 to the stock exchange, which is expected 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.
Founder: Starling boss Anne Boden, the first British woman to start a new bank, said she would step down from the role of chief exec at the end of next month
She said it was not appropriate to have a shareholder as CEO due to potential conflict of interest.
Chief Operating Officer John Mountain will hold the position until a replacement is appointed. Starling reported a record profit of £195 million for the year to the end of March – more than six times last year’s £32 million.
Revenue rose from £453m to £453m from £216m as it cashed in on rising interest rates.
As a digital-only bank, it has no branches and customers can run accounts on their phones.
It has more than 3.6 million accounts and a funding round last year valued it at £2.5 billion. Boden, 63, founded it 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 set up a bank that was really good for customers, that was fair. And people never believed that I could do it and be profitable. So here we are, we did it.’