Anne Boden to step down as chief of Starling as bank reports record profits
The founder of Starling Bank, Anne Boden, has announced she will step down as chief executive of the firm at the end of June as the bank reported record annual profits today.
In a statement today, Starling said Boden would step down from the end of June but will remain on the board as a non executive director – while Starling chief operating officer John Mountain will temporarily take over the reins.
A hunt for a permanent chief executive has begun and the bank said it would update the market in “due course”.
Speaking with reporters today, Boden pointed to a desire to split up her role as a major shareholder and the chief executive of the firm and said it was “no longer appropriate for the business” that she remained in the top job. She insisted that the decision to step aside had not been imposed on her by City watchdogs, however.
“This is not coming from the regulators. This is coming from me and the board,” she told reporters.
“This has been a discussion for about six months, and my role in the company was brought up by me,” she added.
Boden founded the digital bank in 2014 and has led the firm to become one of the most high profile challenger lenders in the country.
The announcement came as the firm reported record pre-tax profits of £195m for the year to to the end of March 2023, a six fold increase on the previous year’s figure of £32m.
The bank notched revenues of £453m for the year, more than double last year’s figure of £216m, while its loan book topped £4.9bn against £3.3bn last year.
In a statement today, she said: “We’ve succeeded in disrupting an entire industry. I’m immensely proud of these results, which are a testament to how far we have come as a team and how fast we’ve moved as a business.”
Starling has been among the most hotly rumoured and anticipated UK IPOs in recent year but Boden said today the plans were currently on ice until markets settled.