Staff ‘quit challenger bank Starling’ after being told to return to office

Raman Bhatia, who took over as chief executive in March, told staff he wants them in the office for a minimum of 10 days a month

Starling Bank was founded in 2017 and last year had 3.6 million customers (PA)

Challenger bank Starling has reportedly suffered resignations after its new leader asked staff to spend more time in the office.

Raman Bhatia, who took over as chief executive in March, told staff he wants them in the office for a minimum of 10 days a month, the Guardian reported.

The demand was met with protests from staff who questioned how the business would cope since it has so few desks available in its offices in the UK – about 900 for its 3,231 workers.

The decision led to a fierce backlash from workers using its internal Slack messaging software, the newspaper said. Some staff resigned while others have threatened to do so.

One accused Bhatia of attempting to make a “bland grey corporate hellscape filled with dead-eyed zombies who care about nothing more than doing the bare minimum, clocking off and collecting a paycheque”.

A Starling Bank spokesperson said: "Starling recently formalised a long-standing practice in which colleagues were encouraged to work in their local office for two to three days a week.

“By bringing colleagues together in person, our aim is to achieve greater collaboration that will benefit our customers as we enter Starling’s next phase of growth.

“People managers are able to provide additional support to colleagues with wellbeing and other personal needs. Those with fully remote or flexible arrangements in place already remain on those terms."

The lender was founded in 2017 and last year had 3.6 million customers.

It received a £29m fine from the UK financial regulator last month, which said it had “shockingly lax” controls against financial crime.

The Financial Conduct Authority said its controls to identify potential money laundering, breaches on sanctions and identifying high-risk customers had not kept up with its rapid growth as a business.

It had agreed with the regulator to do a better job of screening potential clients, but still let 49,000 risky customers in during the two years to last November, it said.

Sanctions against Russians in the wake of the war on Ukraine has made weeding out bad customers more important to avoid breaking the law, but also more difficult for new, fast-growing banks as the list of banned clients grows.

Hoping to take advantage of people’s mistrust and anger with the incumbent banks following the financial crisis of 15 years ago, a slew of new names appeared in banking, including Starling.