The Starling Bank app displayed on a person’s phone.
Adrian Dennis | AFP via Getty Images
LONDON — British online lender Starling Bank on Wednesday reported a sharp drop in annual profit, citing an issue with Covid-era business loan fraud and a regulatory fine over financial crime failings.
Starling, which offers fee-free current accounts and lending services via a mobile app, posted profit before tax for the year ending March 31, 2025 of £223.4 million ($301.9 million), down nearly 26% year-over-year.
Revenue at the bank totalled £714 million, up about 5% from £682 million a year ago. However, that marked a slowdown from the more than 50% revenue growth Starling saw in its 2024 fiscal year.
Profits for the year were impacted by a £29 million fine by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority over failings related to Starling’s financial crime prevention systems.
Starling also flagged an issue with the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) that was designed to provide firms with access to cash during the coronavirus pandemic.
Starling was one of several banks that were approved to lend cash to firms during the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. The scheme provided a 100% guarantee to lenders, making the government responsible for covering the full outstanding loan amount if a borrower defaulted.
However, Starling said it has since “identified a group of BBLS loans which potentially did not comply with a guarantee requirement” due to weaknesses in its historic fraud checks. After flagging this to the state-owned British Business Bank, the firm subsequently “volunteered to remove the government guarantee on those loans.”
“As a result, we have taken a £28.2m provision in this year’s accounts,” the bank said, referring to both the FCA fine and BBLS issue.
However, Starling said it held an Expected Credit Loss provision of £800,000 as of March 31 in relation to certain BBLS loans “where the guarantee provided under the BBLS guarantee agreement may no longer be available to the Company.”
“This is a legacy issue which we dealt with transparently and in full cooperation with the British Business Bank,” Declan Ferguson, Starling’s chief financial officer, said on a media call Wednesday.
Starling has operated as a licensed bank in the U.K. since 2018. It counts the likes of Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments and the Qatar Investment Authority as shareholders.
The firm, which was last privately valued in 2022 at £2.5 billion, faces hefty competition from both incumbent banks and rival fintechs like Monzo and Revolut.