Starling Bank Updates Figures, Summarises Latest Features

In a new blog post, Starling has announced updated figures which show that the bank now has over 2.4 million active accounts, including 400,000 business accounts.

This shows considerable growth, considering the annual results released in March 2021 celebrated the bank passing the 2 million account mark, meaning an increase of around 20% in just six months.

The bank has also reported that the total amount held with the bank by business customers is almost £4 billion, with an average balance across all business accounts of £13,000. In terms of personal and joint accounts, the total stands at more than £2.8 billion with an average of £2,000 per account.

It continues the momentum of an excellent year for the challenger bank, which reported a rise in revenue by around £600 million in the March end of year figures, with losses after tax being more than halved.

The bank estimates that, based on revenue earned from April to June, the run rate for this next financial year stands at over £170 million, which would be a further increase of 75%.

Productive Year

Starling’s position as a challenger bank has seen it introduce a number of new features and offerings over the last few months, as it continues to put pressure on the more mainstream banks. As highlighted in the recent blog post that announced these figures, some of the bank’s highlights include:

• Offering new business loans under the government-backed Recovery Loan Scheme, as a follow up to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, both of which ended in April.
• Additional features for Starling’s Kite service aimed at children aged 6 to 16, including the ability to log into the app for the first time.
• New design features, including a dark mode for iOS and a revamp of the card details screen.
• Acquisition of Fleet Mortgages, a specialist in buy-to-let, for £50 million.
• New partnerships with various British events and venues, and with Instavolt, the electric car charging network.
• Extra fraud prevention methods and tools.

The bank also highlighted its #MakeMoneyEqual campaign which is designed to improve representation in the banking industry. One significant change has been the introduction of a new image library for publications to use that better represents women and money, ensuring that inequalities are addressed.

The bank has highlighted that many images traditionally feature women with pennies or piggy banks and men with notes, a trend it wishes to eradicate with this new free library.

Position In The Market

Starling’s position continues to improve and it is leading the way for challenger banks. In the most recent set of account switching statistics for the end of 2020, it was shown to have a net gain of almost 16,000 customers.

That’s second only behind Lloyds Bank which had a huge gain of almost 30,000 customers, but it achieved that with a switching cash bonus — something Starling didn’t need to offer.

The 2.4 million accounts of Starling is still some way behind the estimated 17.5 million of Lloyds Bank, but it is moving in the right direction.