Those who read a description of Anne Boden rarely think of a banker. A woman from Wales, daughter of a steelworker father and a department store cashier mother, she seemed destined for a very different life. Yet her determination to shake up the status quo led her to build one of Europe’s leading digital banks from scratch.
That bank is Starling, a fintech unicorn with over 4.2 million accounts currently, £14.7 billion in assets, and a reputation for democratizing access to financial services. Boden, who launched the bank in 2014 after decades in senior roles at Lloyds, ABN AMRO, and Allied Irish Banks, defied an industry known for its old boys’ clubs and resistance to change.
But she didn’t just want to create another financial product, the bold idea was to rewire banking for good. Under her leadership, Starling was among the first to offer real-time mobile banking with a customer-centric design. By 2021, the bank had reached profitability, a feat still elusive for many fintech peers.
But Boden’s journey took a new turn last year. In June 2023, she stepped down as CEO — not to retire, but to reinvent herself yet again. In interviews, she’s described this next chapter as a return to “innovation at the edges”. Today, she’s building a new startup focused on using artificial intelligence to improve how small businesses access financial services.
She remains a non-executive director at Starling and a powerful voice in fintech policy, pushing for stronger regulation of Big Tech in finance and greater inclusion in tech leadership. At 65, Boden is far from done. She’s proof that reinvention is possible and often, essential.
