Starling Bank hires HSBC MD to confront its control issues

Starling Bank has its work cut out for it; the British banking fintech received a £29m fine for "shockingly lax" financial crime controls. Fixing those issues is urgent on the agenda, and Starling is looking to HSBC alumni for help.

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Harjinder Kooner announced yesterday that he has joined Starling in London as its chief control officer. He spent the last 23 years at the incumbent British bank, seven of which were as an MD. His roles as an MD included head of risk, processes and control for its global banking and markets team.

He's not the only HSBC veteran to join recently. Colin Tancock joined Starling last month in its Cardiff office as chief of staff. Tancock was at HSBC for 15 years, and was most recently chief of staff for wealth and personal banking. 

Some HSBC vets have been around for longer. Starling's head of AML and CTF operations Nicola Hawkins joined in January, while the fintech's head of financial crime strategy Jessie Harrington has been at the bank over two years. They spent a collective 39 years working at HSBC before joining Starling. Despite joining prior to the fine, neither were implicated in the FCA's report.

Tancock will presumably play a key role in Starling's hiring for the controls functions that Kooner will oversee. Starling currently has open roles for a head of treasury risk and a risk reporting officer in London, as well as a data scientist in its financial crime team.

Starling also has a penchant for hiring from banks outside of its risk and controls functions. It hired former Citi project manager Paul Caden to head its portfolio management office last month. It also hired ex-Santander portfolio manager Oliver Speake as a senior portfolio manager, and ex Natwest technical lead Pavels Hodorovics as a senior software engineer.

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