Chief of Southampton's Starling Bank steps down

Published by

Tom Kilkelly

Anne Boden at Disrupt Berlin 2017. Credit: TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Southampton-based Starling Bank's founder and chief executive Anne Boden is stepping down, almost a decade after founding the company.

Anne's official stepping down date is June 30 but she will still partly-own the company and will remain on the board.

Starling has grown from its initial base of personal customers, all of whom operated through the Starling Bank app. The company added business accounts and acquired a mortgage book as the project developed, partly due to its purchase of Fleet Mortgages. Anne's departure comes amidst reports of record profit, with the branchless bank posting a pre-tax profit of £195 million.

The app-based bank is also set to list itself on the Stock Exchange at some point in the near future.

In an interview with BBC Wales Anne said: "People never believed that a 5ft tall Welsh woman in her mid-50s could do something that had never been done before.

"I had become ashamed to be a banker, I was ashamed to be part of that whole regime that had let the country down. I wanted to do something different, 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 have done it, proof positive."

Anne leaves the bank full of optimism, and is reported as saying that the company is now in a position that made her role as chief-executive ''not really appropriate'' due to her simultaneous position as share holder.

The former chief executive, who owns 4.9 per cent of Starling, said: "It's thrilling. When I look back at how I started Starling, I never thought we would get to this stage.

"Starling is bigger than just one person, it is bigger than a founder-led organisation. It is a piece of infrastructure that is important to the UK. We provide a real role in society."

Starling's success has made Anne a role-model for women in finance. Now that she is no longer overseeing operations at Starling, she will be able to channel more focus into her position as chair of the Women-led high-growth enterprise taskforce, a UK government operation.

In the same interview with BBC Wales she said: "When women get the investment, when women get the chance, they can lead great companies and lead those companies to success.''

Tom Kilkelly

Tom Kilkelly started working as a freelance journalist for The Business Magazine following his graduation from UCL in 2022. During his studies Tom became very interested in the works of Irish authors including Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan). His current role as a freelance business reporter is his first exposure to the world of business journalism. Working at TBM has given Tom the chance to really get to grips with the goings-on in the business hive that is the South East.