Digital challenger bank Starling Bank has reported its first full year of profitability, partially due to growth in mortgage lending from acquisitions.
According to a trading update in June, total mortgage lending has come to £2.06bn in June, which is up from £1.22bn in March this year and up from £40m in June last year.
The bank said that its deposit base had also grown, with total customer deposits coming to £9.63bn, up from £6.76bn in June last year.
The challenger bank came to a pre-tax profit of £32.1m for the financial year ending March, which compares to a £31.5m loss in the same period last year.
Total gross lending came to £4.03bn, up from £2.34bn in June last year.
Starling Bank acquired Fleet Mortgages in July last year and has raised £130.5m for its acquisition war chest.
The bank is also reported to have bought a £500m mortgage book from Masthaven.
Anne Boden, founder and chief executive of Starling Bank, said: “With our first full year of profitability, we’ve placed ourselves firmly in a category of one.
“As an innovative digital bank with a sustainable business model and a strong balance sheet we are generating our own capital and we stand apart from both the old banks and other challengers.”
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.