Anne Boden, the founder and chief executive of Starling Bank, one of Britain’s fastest-growing challenger lenders, has announced that she will step down from her role next month.

Boden, who owns 4.9% of Starling, said she was leaving to avoid any conflict of interest between being a large shareholder and chief executive. She will be replaced by John Mountain, the current chief operating officer, as interim CEO from June 30.

The news came as Starling reported a surge in its full year pretax profit to £195m, up from £32m the previous year, driven by a strong growth in its lending business, especially in mortgages.

Starling, which offers personal and business banking online and at users’ fingertips, said it had increased its customer base to over 3 million accounts and had a 5% share of the UK’s small business banking market.

Boden, who founded Starling in 2014 after a career in traditional banking, said she was proud of what the bank had achieved and was confident that it would continue to grow and innovate under Mountain’s leadership.

She also said that there was no hurry for an initial public offering (IPO) due to the market environment and that Starling would wait for the right time to list.

“Nobody’s doing IPOs at the moment, the market’s closed,” she said. “We can just hold tight until the environment is right for a listing.”

Starling is one of the leading digital banks in the UK, competing with rivals such as Monzo, Revolut and Atom. It has been praised for its award-winning bank accounts, its customer service and its security features.

It has also been committed to fighting climate change and protecting the environment, aiming to reduce its carbon emissions by one third by 2030 and offsetting them annually.

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