Starling Group Achieves Third Year of Profitability

Starling Group today publishes consolidated results for Starling Bank, Engine by Starling and Fleet Mortgages, for the year ending 31 March 2024. The results show a third year of profitability for the Group, driven by strong growth in revenue, deposits, active customers and customer transactions.

The UK digital banking group reports a 54.7% increase in pre-tax profits to £301.1m. Revenue grew by 50.6% to reach £682.2m, while total deposits were up 4% to £11bn.

John Mountain, Interim CEO 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%, while total transactions rose by 21% to £174.1bn during the year. We have more customers, using our services more often, continuing to deepen their relationship with us.

“We look forward to welcoming our new Group CEO, Raman Bhatia on 24 June. He brings a wealth of experience in consumer technology, banking and fintech expertise as the Group enters its next phase of growth.”

Highlights:

• Profit before tax: Continued profitability growth with a 54.7% increase in profits to £301.1m (FY23: £194.6m)
• Total revenue: Up by 50.6% to £682.2m (FY23: £452.8m)
• Deposits: £11bn (FY23: £10.6bn). Fixed-term deposits reach £430.6m (FY23: £83m)
• Gross lending: £4.7bn (FY23: £4.9bn)
• Loan-to-deposit-ratio: 42.8% (FY23: 46.2%)
• Card spending: Up by 21.1% to £19.9bn (FY23: £16.5bn)
• Accounts: 4.2m accounts (FY23: 3.6m), with 2.9m active core accounts (FY23: 2.4m)
• Cost to serve: Continued leveraging of technology capabilities to realise non-staff efficiencies with cost to serve reducing to £7.44 per active core account (FY23: £10.60)
• Average revenue per active customer (ARPAC): Continued ARPAC growth from increased engagement and supported by the current base rate environment to £242 (FY23: £200)
• Engine by Starling: Software as a Service (SaaS) provider signed two clients in Australia and Romania and is revenue-generating – Salt Bank (Romania) achieved 200k customers onboarded within the first month of launch
• Fleet Mortgages: Buy-to-let mortgage portfolio has increased 51% to £2.3bn