Steven Newson | Group CTO, Starling Bank

Career History

Steven Newson is the Group CTO of Starling Bank, where he is responsible for technology across the digital banking group. He has spent more than a decade at the company, joining as Director of Technology in 2015 before becoming CTO in 2019. He subsequently spent around 18 months as Chief Operations Officer before moving into the Group CTO role in March 2025.

Newson has played a key role in building and scaling Starling’s technology as the business has grown from an early-stage challenger bank into a broader financial technology group. His remit now spans the technology supporting Starling Bank as well as the wider group.

Before Starling, Newson held engineering roles at the Department for Work and Pensions, Lloyds Banking Group and LMAX Exchange. He studied Computer Science at the University of Leeds, having previously studied Chemistry at Durham University.

About Starling Bank

Starling was founded in London in 2014 by Anne Boden and received its UK banking licence in 2016, before launching its first personal current account the following year. It has since grown into one of the UK’s largest digital banks, offering personal, business and joint accounts alongside lending, savings and other financial products.

The group now powers 6.2 million accounts across its own bank and external platforms, with customer deposits of £12.7bn. In the year to March 2026, Starling generated £887m in revenue and £217m in pre-tax profit, marking its fifth consecutive year of profitability.

Alongside its UK banking business, Starling has expanded internationally through Engine by Starling, which licenses the cloud-native technology originally built for Starling Bank to other financial institutions. Engine’s revenue grew 25% in FY2026 as its client base doubled, making banking technology an increasingly important part of the group’s growth strategy.