Starling Boss
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The Sunday Times August 11, 2019 BUSINESS PHIL YEOMANS were having a great time.” She took an MBA at Middlesex University and left. The next stop was Price Waterhouse, where she did strategy work with big banks, then Zurich with UBS. Stints at Starling insurer Aon and ABN Amro followed. In 2012, Boden became chief operating officer of AIB, the nationalised lender, where she worked under David Duffy, now boss of Virgin Money owner CYBG. While at AIB, she took holidays to America and Australia to see how other boss: our banks were trying to repair their balance sheets and customers’ trust after the financial crisis. She decided the only way to improve things was to start from scratch. “Fixing the old banking system was terribly difficult to do,” she says. “Not because people didn’t have enough intel- tech will lectual horsepower, or they didn’t want to do it, but the problem was difficult.” let us fly Boden, who was called crazy more I was coding all The big banks have been beating a path night while all to the door of the mobile-only start-up’s the investment founder to see how things are done and corporate 6m. “In terms of the retail banking fight, bankers were INTERVIEW Revolut and Monzo are acquiring more customers, but Starling has more of a having a great time LIAM KELLY range,” says David Brear, founder of fin- AND EMMA DUNKLEY tech consultancy 11:FS. “I think they are presenting a good case for an acquisition than once after launching Starling, met [by one of the big banks].” reclusive hedge fund tycoon Harald he windows of Starling Bank’s Boden, who owns 13% of Starling, says: McPike and flew to the Bahamas, where headquarters on the edge of “I hope we have an independent future he keeps his yacht, to pitch her idea. He the City have been frosted. for as long as possible. I don’t think at the committed £48m in three tranches, and You might think this is an moment it would serve the industry well has now invested £83m in total. attempt to deter burglars — by being too associated with the big Unlike Monzo and Revolut, Starling but it is no coincidence that banks.” She thinks a float in two or three does not have a blue-chip roster of ven- Monzo, the challenger bank’s years is the most likely outcome. ture capital backers: its only investors are shinier, younger rival, The digital upstarts have a chasm to McPike and Merian, the fund manager recently moved in next door. bridge. Starling and Monzo combined that was previously part of Old Mutual. Anne Boden laughs. “We take have an estimated current account mar- Boden takes pride in Starling’s tech- customer data here very, very seriously,” ket share of less than 5% compared with nology platform, which has allowed it to Tsays the founder in her soft Welsh accent. about 75% controlled by HSBC, Barclays, offer current accounts and run them Starling is not just competing against Lloyds and RBS. “Thus far, it is almost profitably because it can acquire deposits the high street’s big four banks. It is in a impossible to see any material impact on cheaply and does not have a costly fintech arms race with other challengers. the incumbents from the likes of Star- branch network. It also offers accounts to Asked how she differentiates it from oth- ling,” says Investec analyst Ian Gordon. sole traders and small businesses, and ers in the crowded space, Boden is ada- Boden fidgets constantly, one moment won a £100m grant to develop business mant it is superior to the likes of Monzo. waving her arms like an orchestra con- products this year. “We’ve got higher average balances, ductor, then playing with reading glasses. Starling, with 600 staff split between we have a lot of engagement and we have She occasionally pauses to sip a glass of London and Southampton, has launched people tending to use us for the weekly Diet Coke. Her trademark black dress is a marketplace where other providers can shop, not just the Costa coffee,” she says. livened up by a vibrant patterned scarf. Riding a wave: Anne Boden, chief executive of Starling Bank, outside the lender’s new office in Southampton offer investments, savings products and Over a full year, Starling’s average cus- Boden grew up in Swansea. Her father mortgages, with the bank taking commis- tomer balance is £1,450 — comparable to was a steel worker and her mother sion. The upside is that Starling has no some high street lenders — and a third of worked in a department store. However, VITAL STATISTICS WORKING DAY Anne Boden, a prolific capital tied up in these services; the users pay at least £1,000 a month into she was not allowed to learn Welsh THE LIFE OF Born: January 1, 1960 The chief executive of tweeter, opines on social downside is it is purely the middleman. their accounts. Starling’s £600m of because her parents wanted her to have Status: single Starling Bank gets up at media, reads newspapers Four executives, including finance deposits compares favourably with “broader horizons” than Wales. ANNE BODEN School: Cefn Hengoed 5.30am and leaves her and sends emails before director Tony Ellingham, have left this Monzo’s £468m, especially as Monzo has She studied chemistry and computer Community School, Regent’s Park home at arriving at the Starling office year, raising questions about Boden’s 2.7m users to Starling’s 775,000. science at Swansea University, where she Swansea 6.45am. She goes to a on the edge of the City. leadership. “It’s not a red flag, but it is an Boden has previous with Monzo. Tom became enthusiastic about coding. She University: computer coffee shop to work Each morning at 10am, amber warning,” says one industry Blomfield, its founder, worked at Starling looked for jobs in intelligence and the science and chemistry at because “there’s no one in her team gathers to discuss insider. Boden says people “occasionally before leading a revolt of 13 senior staff in defence industry, but at her mother’s Swansea; MBA at Middlesex the office at 7.30am” and the previous day and how to have fantastic offers from competitors, 2015 to set up his rival bank. She says she insistence, applied for a graduate posi- First job: programme “I love being with people”. improve customer service. and I wish them all the best”. doesn’t bear a grudge and the pair occa- tion at Lloyds because working at a bank manager at Lloyds Bank With the bank spread across Last year, Starling agreed to help RBS sionally have breakfast. “Things happen was seen as “secure and respectable”. Pay: £362,000 three floors, Boden ”walks develop its Bó digital brand. Some ana- in start-ups,” Boden, 59, says. “You need Boden moved to London in 1981 and Homes: Regent’s Park, around all day” before lysts question whether Starling will to move on.” Blomfield, 34 today, spent six months on secondment at a central London, and Marlow, leaving at about 8pm. morph into a tech consultant and give up declines to comment. branch in Hampstead. She enjoyed cash- Buckinghamshire on its vision of breaking into the mass Boden, a former Royal Bank of Scot- ing cheques for famous customers. Who Car: grey Audi TT DOWNTIME market. The bosses of big banks have land and Allied Irish Banks (AIB) execu- were they? “I can’t say really, because Favourite book: The Hard Boden, 59, spends what been beating a path to Boden’s door to tive, founded Starling in 2014. It has dou- that’s banking secrecy,” Boden says. She Thing About Hard Things, little free time she has see how things can be done. One chief bled its number of current account eventually relents and blurts out “Sting by Ben Horowitz shopping for fabrics. She executive recently turned up with his customers in eight months, though in the and the Police!” with a giggle. Film: “Don’t have one — I’m likes to “hang out” at Jill entire board. That culminated in Boden year ending last November, losses also After four years at Lloyds, Boden into books” Lawrie Interiors, a design being asked if she would “do a deal” and more than doubled to £26.9m on income joined emerging markets-focused Stan- Gadget: iPhone shop near her Marlow home, consider selling out. She declined. of £750,000. Boden says the bank should dard Chartered. She grew envious of col- Music: “Not into music” where she talks about new “We’re very attractive and doing inter- be profitable by the end of next year. leagues. “I was spending all my time get- Charity: ovarian cancer books she has read and esting things,” she says, “but unless I However, there is a sense that Starling ting these systems to work and coding all charities Favourite author: tech “how one of these days I’ll spend more time worrying about this is lagging behind rivals with global ambi- night,” Boden recalls. “And all the invest- Last holiday: St Lucia titan Ben Horowitz get a new pair of curtains”. business and less time talking to other tions that are piling on users: Revolut has ment bankers and corporate bankers people, it’s not going to get done.” The supply of the material by The Publisher does not constitute or imply any endorsement or sponsorship of any product, service, company or organisation. 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