Digital bank Starling reports first profit on back of strong loan book

Landmark' for eight-year-old British enterprise as it turns 14m loss into 32m annual profit helped by Covid loans

Starling Bank has reported its first annual profit thanks to a surge in lending, though executives played down the impact that a controversial boom in Covid loans had on its path to profit.

The chief executive and founder, Anne Boden, said the latest set of earnings were a landmark" for the eight-year-old digital bank. Starling, which is backed by investors including Goldman Sachs and Austrian billionaire Harald McPike, swung to an inaugural annual profit of 32m for the year to March, from a loss of nearly 14m over the previous 12 months.