FCA fines Starling Bank £29m over sanctions screening and high-risk accounts

Starling Bank Limited · Digital retail bank

Regulatory breachGovernance failure

The case in brief

Visible before detection

Checks that could have surfaced it, on hindsight

FCA requirements and enforcement records would show the restriction on high-risk accounts.

Can mislead when: Court records lag and name spellings vary. A clean record can mean the problem has not reached court yet.

Testing the screening tool would show it covered only part of the sanctions list.

Can mislead when: Contract staff do not appear in EPFO. Vahan access needs licensed APIs. Some businesses have no physical trace.

The pace of growth against compliance capacity would show a governance gap.

Can mislead when: Private companies file late, so these signals are lagging. Kubr uses them to support other flags, not to prove anything alone.

Where Kubr services would have helped

Offered in India

C8 FCA requirements and enforcement records would show the restriction on high-risk accounts.
C10 Testing the screening tool would show it covered only part of the sanctions list.
C11 The pace of growth against compliance capacity would show a governance gap.

Offered in India

C8 FCA requirements and enforcement records would show the restriction on high-risk accounts.
C11 The pace of growth against compliance capacity would show a governance gap.

Offered in India

C8 FCA requirements and enforcement records would show the restriction on high-risk accounts.
C11 The pace of growth against compliance capacity would show a governance gap.

Offered in India

C8 FCA requirements and enforcement records would show the restriction on high-risk accounts.
C11 The pace of growth against compliance capacity would show a governance gap.

Mapped from the checks each service runs. A hindsight reading of public records, not a promise that the failure would have been found.

Same pattern

India · 2025