Starling Bank u-turns on furloughing staff

In a complete about-turn, Starling Bank has confirmed they are not furloughing any staff, despite saying they would have to earlier this month. 

Two weeks ago it was reported that the digital bank was to furlough 41 members of staff amid the coronavirus pandemic.

However, yesterday morning on the Fintech Insider Breakfast Show podcast with 11:FS’ David Brear, CEO and founder of Starling Bank Anne Boden confirmed this was no longer the case. 

In fact, Boden said: “If anything we will have more people employed at Starling at the end of this crisis than the beginning. [This crisis] has actually brought the organisation back together again.” 

“We are talking much more and it’s very easy to get on with these new tools and have very effective communication. It’s reminiscent of when we were only 50 or 100 people. The question is will we be able to keep the same kind of vibe when we hit 1,000 people,” she added.

Last month the digital bank confirmed to AltFi that they were still hiring new staff but had reduced the number of open positions because some roles were difficult to transfer to remote working.

On the podcast Boden established Starling was hiring more staff, in particular engineers, to help the bank continue to fire on all cylinders and attributed the current success of the company to the quality of people it employs.

Starling has recently launched several new products, it now offers digital cheque scanning for all customers and introduced the Coronavirus Support Scheme which gives customers struggling financially a three-month interest holiday on their overdrafts.

Most recently, the digital bank launched the Connected Card which links to an existing account and is aimed at customers relying on friends and family to help them buy essential items because of coronavirus.

Over the bank holiday weekend, it was also announced that Starling is now an accredited Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) lender meaning that they can provide SMEs with the financial support they need to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

Boden also confirmed that the bank’s customer base, for both personal and business accounts, is continuing to grow despite the ongoing economic turmoil.