UK digital bank Starling is preparing for a change at the top after its chief executive, Raman Bhatia, informed the board privately that he no longer wishes to continue leading the business.
The development, reported by the Financial Times on 4 November 2026, comes roughly two years after Bhatia assumed the role and arrives at a challenging moment for the neobank.
Bhatia was appointed group chief executive in March 2024, succeeding interim leadership that followed the departure of founder Anne Boden.
He joined from Ovo, the UK energy retailer where he had served as CEO, bringing prior experience heading digital banking operations for HSBC’s retail banking and wealth management business across the UK and Europe.
His arrival was framed as an opportunity to accelerate growth in both Starling’s consumer and small business banking offerings and its Engine software platform sold to other institutions.
The board has responded by intensifying succession planning, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Bhatia’s expected exit would mark a relatively short stint compared with the tenure of many peers in the sector.
Starling has been navigating slower expansion and a subdued valuation.
Revenues declined 6 per cent to £887 million in the year to March 2026, while pre-tax profit fell 3 per cent to £217 million, pressured in part by lower Bank of England base rates that reduced net interest income.
The bank has also contended with regulatory constraints.
In 2021 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed restrictions related to financial crime controls that limited Starling’s ability to open accounts for higher-risk customers.
In 2024 the regulator fined the bank £29 million and described its controls as “shockingly lax.”
Bhatia indicated in May 2026 that the firm was working to exit those restrictions.
Separately, founder Anne Boden, who established Starling in 2014 as one of the early UK digital-only challengers, fully exited her remaining stake last month at a reported valuation of £1.7 billion—well below the £4 billion figure associated with earlier secondary-sale planning.
Boden stepped down as chief executive after disagreements with investors over the pace of valuation growth, having previously led the bank through its early profitable years.
Rivals such as Monzo and Revolut have achieved substantially higher valuations, underscoring competitive pressure in the UK neobank segment.
Starling has pursued diversification through Engine, its banking-as-a-service technology, and has explored international expansion of that platform, including potential US opportunities.
It has also invested in AI capabilities, including a partnership with Nvidia on a transactional model hosted in a UK sovereign cloud and tools aimed at financial-crime investigations.
Leadership turnover adds another layer of uncertainty as the bank works through growth headwinds, regulatory remediation, and questions around longer-term strategy, including possible public-listing pathways that have previously drawn internal debate.
No formal announcement on a successor or exact departure timeline has been made, and Starling has not publicly commented on the reports. The episode highlights the operational and market challenges facing even established digital banks as interest-rate environments shift and competition for customers and investor capital intensifies.
