Starling Bank sees pre-tax income surge
- Starling has posted its third full year of profitability
- The digital bank reeled in £301.1m in pre-tax profits
Starling Bank has posted its third year of full profitability as it benefitted from higher interest rates and growth in customers.
The digital bank posted pre-tax profits of £301.1million in the year ending 31 March 2024, up 54.7 per cent on last year’s pre-tax profits of £194.6million.
Its revenue rose to £682.2million from £452.8million.
Starling posted a net-income – the difference between what banks charge borrowers and pay savers – of £592.9million up from £348.9milllion last year.
Starling Bank has posted its third full year of profitability
Its net interest margin ballooned to 4.34 per cent from 2.72 per cent.
Starling said ‘higher base rates undoubtedly provided a strong tailwind’ as well as the growth of its customer base.
The bank’s total customer accounts rose to 4.2million from 3.6million and deposits grew to £11billion from £10.6billion in 2023.
Starling also attributed its success to its first Software-as-a-Service sales through its software business Engine.
In May, Starling launched its first bank, Salt Bank, in Romania using Engine’s software and is mid-way through launching a second digital bank in Australia.
These are the first results Starling has published since the departure of founder and former chief executive Anne Boden.
The group’s new chief executive, Raman Bhatia will take over on 24 June 2024.
John Mountain, interim boss of Starling Bank, said: ‘This is our third full year of profitability demonstrating a robust financial performance.
‘It was a breakthrough year for Starling as we became a global provider of banking Software as a Service through our subsidiary Engine by Starling.
‘We’ve heavily invested in Engine because we’re confident it can one day become as big as the UK bank, or bigger.’
David Sproul, group chair of Starling, said: ‘Starling is now an established part of the UK banking scene.
‘The percentage of active accounts now stands at nearly 80 per cent, while total transactions rose by 21 per cent to £174.1billion during the year.
‘We have more customers, using our services more often, continuing to deepen their relationship with us.’
Starling has been earmarked as a future Initial Public Offering and these results could be another step in the bank, founded in 2014, in being listed.
