Starling Bank has been named Bank of the Year at the City AM Awards. Anne Boden, founder and CEO of the leading digital bank, has been named personality of the year. 

Anne Boden, CEO and founder of Starling Bank, said: “We’ve won this award because we listen to our customers and have built a culture around giving them what they want. I’d like to say thanks to them all; your feedback challenges our team, which is made up of some of the best talent in the sector, to make the bank better every day.”

Lawson Muncaster, co-founder of City AM said: “Starling Bank is a success story for the UK tech sector. As the first challenger bank to turn a profit, complete with outstanding customer satisfaction scores and impressive UK growth, Starling Bank, and the founder at the helm of it, are the clear winners of the City AM Awards this year.”

The award wins follow a period of sustained growth for the bank. Since launching its app five years ago in May 2017, Starling has opened nearly 3 million accounts, including more than 450K SME accounts. 

The bank’s founder and CEO, Anne Boden, has been honoured with an MBE for services to fintech and has joined the Prime Minister’s Business Council and the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board. 

The City AM Awards celebrate the best businesses, entrepreneurs and policymakers in the UK. Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London; Lord Simon Wolfson, CEO of Next; and Alison Brittain, CEO of Whitbread Group have been named Personality of the Year previously.