Starling Bank CEO and founder Anne Boden has published the Fintech’s annual letter as well as a trading report for July 2020, and there are some encouraging comments in the missive. Boden notes that since November 2019, the bank’s “performance has been strong.”
In fact, the “extraordinary growth” of Starling’s loan book is highlighted as this portion of the company has jumped from a mere £100 million to over £1 billion (at end of July) – still small in the land of traditional banks but the growth is pretty impressive.
A good portion of this increase is due in part to Starling’s participation in both the CBILS and BBLS, government-supported programs designed to backstop the COVID hobbled economy. Starling Bank has partnered with top SME P2P lender Funding Circle to provide £300 million of CBILS lending to small businesses. Starling Bank has worked with over 25,000 SMEs with BBLS lending.
Boden states that Starling has seen an increase in its annualized revenue at £80 million and break-even by year-end. The trading report for July specifically indicates £6.7 million in revenue split between £2.8 million in fees and £3.9 million in net interest income.
Starling currently reports 1.5+ million accounts including about 200,000 small business clients. Starling notes that the average age of a Starling Bank customer is 37 and rising thus indicating the digital bank is gaining traction in a more mature demographic – not just the youngs.
The Current Account Switch Service (CASS) generated more than 29,000 customers during the first six months of 202o. Starling reports 11 inbound CASS switches for every single outbound switch.
Total deposits stand at £3.05 billion.
Starling Bank is looking beyond the borders of Great Britain with a bank license in Ireland in the works followed by the Netherlands, France and Germany. The international expansion is planned for 2021.