Rank

Business banking · Full UK PRA/FCA-licensed bank (Awin, currently paused/restructuring)

Starling Business

Item: Starling Business
Rating: 1.4
Author: Maren Holst

FCACompaniesHouse watchlist

Commission: Approximately £30-£60 CPA per funded business account (Awin rate band; programme currently restructuring)
Cookie: 30d
12m EPC: $1.41
Payout rel.: 90
Clawback: 30d

Starling Business is the only fully PRA-licensed challenger bank with a clean public affiliate programme — FSCS coverage to £85k is a real trust differentiator versus EMI competitors. EPC of $1.41 reflects the modest CPA midpoint and a reliability haircut for the programme's current paused / restructuring state through 2026. Watch flag applied until Awin reopens enrolment.

Pros

Full UK PRA/FCA bank licence with FSCS coverage to £85k — the only one in the cohort outside Cashplus
Trustpilot 4.3/5 with ~41,000 reviews is among the highest review-volume signals in UK SMB banking
Awin programme with clean dashboard and Net 30 cadence when active
Companies House #09092149 surfaced publicly — clean UK trust-band signal
Strong fit for trust-led finance-comparison publishers (no superlative-heavy copy required)

Cons

Programme currently paused / restructuring — watch flag applied until Awin reopens
Stricter compliance approval — no PPC on brand terms, restrictions on cashback for some campaigns
Lower CPA midpoint (£30-£60) than Tide for sole-trader content

† Long-form review body pending — editorial expansion scheduled for the next Issue sweep.

Annex · How we scored it

Every factor, every value, every note.

base_payout: $57.00
cookie_decay: 0.55
attribution_factor: 1.00
reliability_factor: 0.90
conversion_rate_estimate: 0.05
payment_threshold_friction: 1.0
12m true-EPC (computed): $1.41
relative grade (vs top in cell): C · 27/100

full methodology v3.2

Adjacent · same cell

Rank

Business banking · Card-led SMB lender + business charge card with Avios rewards

Capital on Tap

FCACompaniesHouse

Rank

Business banking · Full UK PRA/FCA-licensed bank (closed broker / accountant channel)

Allica Bank

FCACompaniesHouse

Rank

Business banking · UK EMI multi-currency (cross-border specialist)

Wise Business

FCACompaniesHouse

Edited by

Maren Holst

Senior Editor

Signed · M.HOLST

Fact-checked by

Asha Devi

Standards Desk (Fact-Checker)

Signed · A.DEVI

Issue meta

vol iii · iss 14

published 2026-05-18

last sweep 2026-05-22

methodology v3.2 · audited apr '26

Companies House #OC4451x

Editorial signatures and issue metadata