Starling among most switched-to UK banks for 4th quarter running

For the first quarter of 2021 Starling Bank was the most switched-to UK bank, marking the 4th quarter in a row that Starling has been among the top two according to the Current Account Switch Service (CASS).

Between January and March a net 17,769 customers switched their primary accounts to Starling, according to CASS, closely followed by Virgin Money with 17,495 net new customers and Monzo with 7,744 new customers.

“Starling is once again the most popular bank for switches, despite offering no signing-on bonuses,” said Starling CEO and founder Anne Boden.

“Customers are attracted to the value Starling brings through its banking app, which allows them to track spending in real-time and do their banking on the go, and our better customer service. In a few short years, we’ve become a trusted mainstream bank.”

Given several high-profile switching offers including £100 and £125 hand-outs from First Direct and HSBC have been withdrawn in recent weeks, expect Starling’s leading position to be maintained for the foreseeable future.

Apart from Starling,Triodos Bank also maintained its position as having one of the highest ratio of customer gains vs losses, with just 77 customers leaving the bank in Q1, and a net gain of 1,133 customers.

“Once again, we have the lowest numbers of customers leaving of any major bank, just as we did every single quarter last year, testament to our focus on good customer service and building our community,” said Triodos head of retail banking Gareth Griffiths.

Looking ahead to this quarter (Q2) CASS said it enabled 182,745 customers to switch account, up 44,769 on the first quarter, and a huge 84,553 increase on Q2 2020 when switching plummeted following the outbreak of Covid-19.

“As the roadmap to the Covid-19 recovery was outlined and clarity around timings increased, we saw a rise in current account switches through the Current Account Switch Service through Q2,” said David Piper, head of service lines at Pay.UK, which owns and operates the CASS.

But Piper cautioned that: “it’s too early to tell whether this trend will continue as we head further into 2021.”