# AI incidents at Starling Bank

Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/starling/ai-incidents
Last updated: Oct 21, 2026

## Has Starling Bank had a publicly reported AI incident?

Yes: 1 publicly reported AI incident on record since January 2022.

| Date | Institution | Incident | AI? | Role | Category | Severity | Status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Oct 2, 2024 | Starling Bank | [FCA fines Starling £29m after its automated sanctions screening checked only part of the list](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-incidents/starling-2024-fca-automated-sanctions-screening) | Automation, not AI | Governance finding | Regulatory finding | 4/5 | Regulator finding |

### FCA fines Starling £29m after its automated sanctions screening checked only part of the list

On 2 October 2024 the FCA fined Starling Bank £28,959,426 for financial-crime failings. Per the FCA, Starling found in January 2023 that its automated sanctions-screening system had, since 2017, screened customers against only a fraction of the UK sanctions list: a misconfiguration meant only people with UK citizenship or residency, 39 of 3,088 designated persons, were checked, and at least one designated person opened an account. The fine also covers Starling opening 54,359 accounts for 49,183 high-risk customers in breach of a voluntary FCA restriction, so not all of it relates to the screening system. Starling accepted the findings, apologised and said it had re-screened transactions. The screening system was automated and not described as AI.

https://www.bankingnewsai.com/ai-incidents/starling-2024-fca-automated-sanctions-screening

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