Starling Group 'very committed' to plans for London stock market listing

London would also be its “natural home” for any potential flotation, he added, in what would see it buck the recent trend that has seen a swathe of firms choose overseas stock markets for their IPOs or to switch their listings abroad.

Mr Mountain said: “A number of shareholders’ investment strategies are based around a public-private approach.

“The timing we need to look at, but we’re very committed to that.”

“We’ve always been very much a UK tech business and the London Stock Exchange would be a natural home for us,” he said.

He said that incoming permanent chief executive Raman Bhatia – formerly boss of gas and electricity supplier Ovo Energy – would update on potential listing plans after he takes the helm on June 24.

Mr Mountain declared Starling was no longer a challenger player but a “thriving established bank” as it reported pre-tax profits jumping by 54.7 per cent to £301.1m for the year to March 31 – its third year of profitability.

Higher UK interest rates “provided a strong tailwind” to its net interest margin – a key performance measure for retail banks – which lifted to 4.34 per cent from 2.72 per cent.

Mr Mountain said it was rolling out its banking software, Engine, globally with aims for this side of the business to possibly overtake the retail banking arm in the future.

The lender last year signed Salt Bank in Romania and AMP Bank in Australia as its first two customers for Engine.

Mr Mountain said: “It was a breakthrough year for Starling as we became a global provider of banking software as a service through our subsidiary Engine by Starling.

“We’ve heavily invested in Engine because we’re confident it can one day become as big as the UK bank, or bigger.”

Starling’s results showed it hiked its impairment provisions to £47m from £34.5m the previous year as it saw a “very modest” increase in arrears, largely across its mortgage lending, with some increased default rates on its unsecured small business loans.

The group saw growth in deposit base slow to 4 per cent, taking the total to £11bn, amid intense competition in the sector as customers switched to find the best rates on savings.