Connect with us

Published

on

The Starling Bank app displayed on a person’s phone.

Adrian Dennis | AFP via Getty Images

LONDON — British online lender Starling Bank on Wednesday reported a sharp drop in annual profit, citing an issue with Covid-era business loan fraud and a regulatory fine over financial crime failings.

Starling, which offers fee-free current accounts and lending services via a mobile app, posted profit before tax for the year ending March 31, 2025 of £223.4 million ($301.9 million), down nearly 26% year-over-year.

Revenue at the bank totalled £714 million, up about 5% from £682 million a year ago. However, that marked a slowdown from the more than 50% revenue growth Starling saw in its 2024 fiscal year.

Profits for the year were impacted by a £29 million fine by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority over failings related to Starling’s financial crime prevention systems.

Starling also flagged an issue with the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) that was designed to provide firms with access to cash during the coronavirus pandemic.

Starling was one of several banks that were approved to lend cash to firms during the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. The scheme provided a 100% guarantee to lenders, making the government responsible for covering the full outstanding loan amount if a borrower defaulted.

However, Starling said it has since “identified a group of BBLS loans which potentially did not comply with a guarantee requirement” due to weaknesses in its historic fraud checks. After flagging this to the state-owned British Business Bank, the firm subsequently “volunteered to remove the government guarantee on those loans.”

“As a result, we have taken a £28.2m provision in this year’s accounts,” the bank said, referring to both the FCA fine and BBLS issue.

However, Starling said it held an Expected Credit Loss provision of £800,000 as of March 31 in relation to certain BBLS loans “where the guarantee provided under the BBLS guarantee agreement may no longer be available to the Company.”

“This is a legacy issue which we dealt with transparently and in full cooperation with the British Business Bank,” Declan Ferguson, Starling’s chief financial officer, said on a media call Wednesday.

Starling has operated as a licensed bank in the U.K. since 2018. It counts the likes of Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments and the Qatar Investment Authority as shareholders.

The firm, which was last privately valued in 2022 at £2.5 billion, faces hefty competition from both incumbent banks and rival fintechs like Monzo and Revolut.

Continue Reading

Technology

Amazon faces FAA, NTSB probe after two delivery drones crashed into crane in Arizona

Published

on

By

Amazon faces FAA, NTSB probe after two delivery drones crashed into crane in Arizona

Two Amazon Prime Air MK30 drones collided with a crane on Oct. 2, 2025 in Tolleson, Arizona.

Courtesy: 12News

Amazon is facing federal probes after two of its Prime Air delivery drones collided with a crane in Arizona, prompting the company to temporarily pause drone service in the area.

The incident occurred on Wednesday around 1 p.m. EST in Tolleson, Arizona, a city west of Phoenix. Two MK30 drones crashed into the boom of a stationary construction crane that was in a commercial area just a few miles away from an Amazon warehouse.

One person was evaluated on the scene for possible smoke inhalation, said Sergeant Erik Mendez of the Tolleson Police Department.

“We’re aware of an incident involving two Prime Air drones in Tolleson, Arizona,” Amazon spokesperson Terrence Clark said in a statement. “We’re currently working with the relevant authorities to investigate.”

Both drones sustained “substantial” damage from the collision on Wednesday, which occurred when the aircraft were mid-route, according to preliminary FAA crash reports.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. The NTSB didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more CNBC tech news

The drones were believed to be flying northeast back-to-back when they collided with the crane that was being used for roof work on a distribution facility, Tolleson police said in a release. The drones landed in the backyard of a nearby building, according to the release.

The probes come just a few months after Amazon, in January, paused drone deliveries in Tolleson and College Station, Texas, temporarily following two crashes at its Pendleton, Oregon, test site. Those crashes also prompted investigations by the FAA and NTSB. The company resumed deliveries in March after it said it had resolved issues with the drone’s software, CNBC previously reported.

Amazon says its delivery drones are equipped with a sense-and-avoid system that enables them to “detect and stay away from obstacles in the air and on the ground.” The system also allows the aircraft to operate without visual observers over greater distances, the company said.

For over a decade, Amazon has been working to bring to life founder Jeff Bezos’ vision of drones whizzing toothpaste, books and batteries to customers’ doorsteps in 30 minutes or less. But progress has been slow, as Prime Air has only been made available in a handful of U.S. cities.

Amazon has set a goal to deliver 500 million packages by drone per year by the end of the decade.

Google and Amazon race to upgrade voice assistants with AI as OpenAI raises the stakes

Continue Reading

Technology

Intel stock is up 50% over the last month, putting U.S. stake at $16 billion

Published

on

By

Intel stock is up 50% over the last month, putting U.S. stake at  billion

Signage outside the Intel headquarters in San Jose, California, US, on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of U.S. chipmaker Intel climbed 3% Thursday, putting the monthly gain over 50%.

The surge pushed the stock past $37, hiking the value of the U.S. government’s 10% stake in Intel to roughly $16 billion.

The Trump administration negotiated an $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock in August, purchasing 433.3 million shares at $20.47 per share.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt celebrated the surge with a post on X from the Association of Mature American Citizens, a conservative organization.

Intel shares jumped 7% on Wednesday after news that the company is in early talks with AMD to add the hardware-maker as a customer.

Read more CNBC tech news

Continue Reading

Technology

Perplexity AI rolls out Comet browser for free worldwide

Published

on

By

Perplexity AI rolls out Comet browser for free worldwide

Aravind Srinivas, chief executive officer Perplexity AI, during a news conference at the SK Telecom Co. headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday, Sept.4, 2024.

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Perplexity AI on Thursday announced that its artificial-intelligence-powered web browser Comet is available worldwide, and will be free to users.

The Comet browser is designed to serve as a personal assistant that can search the web, organize tabs, draft emails, shop and more, according to Perplexity. The startup initially launched Comet in July to Perplexity Max subscribers for $200 a month, and the waitlist has ballooned to “millions” of people, the company said.

Tune in at 8:10 a.m. ET Friday as Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas joins CNBC TV to discuss the release of its AI browser Comet to users for free. Watch in real time on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.

Perplexity’s decision to provide Comet for free could help it attract more users as it works to fend off rivals like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic that have their own AI browser offerings.

In September, Google rolled out Gemini in its Chrome browser, Anthropic announced a browser-based AI agent in August and OpenAI announced Operator, an agent that uses a browser to complete tasks, in January. Perplexity made an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google’s Chrome browser in August.

Read more CNBC tech news

Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that gives users simple answers to questions and links out to the original source material on the web. After the company was accused of plagiarizing content from media outlets, it launched a revenue-sharing model with publishers last year.

The company also introduced Comet Plus in August, which is a subscription that gives users access to content from “trusted publishers and journalists,” according to a blog post. Perplexity said Tuesday that CNN, Condé Nast, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Le Monde, and Le Figaro are its inaugural publishing partners.

Perplexity said additional features are also on the way. The company teased a mobile version of Comet and a feature called Background Assistant, which can work on multiple tasks simultaneously and asynchronously.

WATCH: AI startup Perplexity valued at $20B

AI startup Perplexity valued at $20B

Continue Reading

Trending