BankTech Bulletin #30: Starling Bank: Returning to growth mode in FY27

Research evidence excerpt

BankTech Bulletin #30: Starling Bank: Returning to growth mode in FY27

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BankTech Bulletin #30 Equities

Europe including UKStarling Bank: Returning to growth mode in

FY27 Banks

Jason Napier, CFA

Analyst

jason.napier@ubs.com

The BankTech Bulletin +44-20-7568 5037

The BankTech Bulletin series profiles businesses, events and factors which signpost the Sanjena Dadawala

medium-term outlook for banking. Past editions examined platform deposits, digital Analyst

bank licences, loyalty-driven customer models, next gen IT, CBDCs and a host of sanjena.dadawala@ubs.com

newtech competitors like Chase, Revolut, OakNorth, and Monzo. Here we look at the +44-20-7567 0753

UK's Starling Bank which recently released its FY26 annual report. We think the key Justin Forsythe, CPA

areas of interest are i) the bank's relative strength in deposit funding costs driven by its Analyst

current account funding skew, ii) the planned resumption in customer acquisition justin.forsythe@ubs.com

momentum as regulatory curbs are lifted and marketing spend builds, iii) the potential +44-20-7567 4191

for inorganic activity (press reports here and here), and iv) the evolution of the firm's

software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, Engine.

16% statutory ROTE in 2026, ~18% excluding non-operating items

Starling's FY26 16% statutory ROTE compares with a 19% UK fintech peer group

average of Chase, OakNorth, Monzo, Zopa and Revolut. Setting fee-driven Revolut to

one side, Starling's ROTE is at the top of the group, a little above OakNorth's and much

higher than Chase, Monzo and Zopa despite £12.3m in remediation charges and £10m

in restructuring provisions in the period. We have ROTE adjusted for those items at

18.4%.