The only British bank founded by a woman
The only British bank founded by a woman
You don’t just ‘start a bank’. At least, that’s what our founder was repeatedly told. In truth, the sceptics had a point. No British woman had ever founded a bank. Nobody’s founded one since.
As an app-based bank, we’re not just part of the male-dominated finance industry, but the male-dominated tech industry too.
And that’s why gender equality isn’t just another webpage to us. It’s absolutely central to who we are, and the decisions we make.
43% of our senior managers are women
This is significantly higher than the fintech industry average of 30%, and higher than the UK banking average of 40%. Our senior management includes the Board, the Executive Committee and certain people who report into the Executive Committee.
1 in 3 of our new tech hires are women
Tech is still an overwhelmingly male-industry – only 26% of the tech workforce are women – but we’re trying to change that. Over a third of our new hires between April 2024 and April 2025 were women, a big improvement on our previous figure of 24%.
Progress is built on transparency
We’ve reported our gender pay gap from day one, before we legally had to.
In 2025 we reduced our median pay gap, used to measure ‘typical’ employees, from 9.1% to 8.4%. That’s solid progress, and a significantly lower gap than many UK banks.
But there’s still lots to do. Our mean pay gap shows that men still earn more on average than women, partly because more men hold senior roles.
The bank of choice for female entrepreneurs
On average, only 15% of businesses served by British banks are owned by women. We attract a greater share: nearly 20% of our own business customers are women. And we love to shout about them.
Our most recent in a long line of campaigns, I Built My Business, My Business Built Me, highlighted those “I knew I could do it” moments from four women founders, Pippa, Hayley, Christina and Deborah.
Our partnerships and commitments
Code First Girls: growing the tech talent pool
Through our partnership with the social enterprise Code First Girls (CFG), we’ve sponsored several women to complete a CFG degree – and recruited them as graduates. We’ve also worked on events together.
Women in Finance Charter: raising the bar
Not long after becoming a founding signatory in 2017, we met our target: 40% of senior positions being held by women – now it’s 43%. Since then, we’ve set a new target of 50% by 2027. Watch this space.
Smart Works: helping women secure work
By partnering with the charity Smart Works, we’re helping to build women’s confidence through workwear consultations and career coaching. Got an interview coming up? Read our collective tips.
Developing our women’s network
Our employee-led women’s network, With Women, was set up in 2023 and has since grown to include a third of our employees.
With Women have made a serious impact at Starling. They worked closely with our People team to further improve our parental leave policy, and set up a highly popular mentorship programme open to all.
The network hosts social events and talks throughout the year too, often in collaboration with our charity partners or even customers.
Championing women’s football
Sponsoring the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 was just the beginning. Since then we’ve given over 10,000 free kits to girls’ and women’s grassroots teams, and created a free Pitch Pack to help them access the pitches they deserve.
We’ve also boosted the number of women’s team coaches with our Coaches of Tomorrow programme, hosted at Southampton FC Women. As their official partner, we’re supporting a club that gives their women’s team the same facilities – and platform – as the men’s side.
Stay tuned for more in this space. Our support of women’s football isn’t even close to approaching full time.
Fighting the good fight
Make Money Equal
From creating free stock photography that better represents women and money, to highlighting the gender pay gap in pocket money, we’ve been working to #MakeMoneyEqual since 2018.
Share the Load
Our research found only 29% of couples share household tasks equally. Our Share the Load tracker helps you understand how you’re divvying up unpaid housework – so you can make sure it’s fair.
Telling women’s stories
We want everyone to talk more about money, especially women. Our editorial platform, Noteworthy, is full of stories that explore everything from the real impact of childcare costs to turning a passion into a career at 70.