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Anne Boden is the CEO and Founder of Starling Bank, a British digital challenger bank which focuses on current and business account products. Established in 2014, Anne now describes her role as setting the vision and the mission, and being the energy behind the organisation.
Prior to starting Starling Bank, Anne had a corporate career spanning over 30 years in traditional banking. She spent a couple of years as the Head of EMEA at the Royal Bank of Scotland before joining AIB as its Chief Operating Officer – a very A-list resume. It was before her time at AIB that Anne spent some time in America learning and experiencing the world of Fintech and knew that the world of banking in the UK was not moving forward.
In January 2014, Anne quit her job to start Starling Bank and most people thought she was crazy. It was a big step but she felt like she had to do it, initially funding the business from selling a house she owned.
“I wanted to build the technology from scratch. I didn’t want to go and buy a banking package, that was too easy… I started knocking on doors, saying I’m going to start a bank, this is what it’s going to look like, and it’s going to change banking forever – will you fund me? It wasn’t an easy journey.”
In this episode, they discussed:
- Anne’s corporate background and what inspired her to bring tech to banking
- The moment she quit her job to start Starling Bank and the challenges of getting people to believe in her at the time
- The obstacles legacy banks are facing to shift to a digitalised world
- How Starling Bank have disrupted a 300 year old stagnant industry
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