Atom Bank is a retail bank in the United Kingdom. It is the United Kingdom's first bank built for smartphone or tablet, without any branches, and the first digital-only

challenger bank Challenger banks are small, recently created retail banks that compete directly with the longer-established banks in the UK, sometimes by specialising in areas underserved by the "big four" banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, and NatWe ...

to be granted a full UK regulatory licence. The company is based in

Durham, England Durham ( , locally ), is a cathedral city and civil parish on the River Wear, County Durham, England. It is an administrative centre of the County Durham District, which is a successor to the historic County Palatine of Durham (which is dif ...

. Atom is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the

Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The ...

(FCA) and the PRA.

History

Atom was founded in July 2013 by Anthony Thomson, co-founder of Metro Bank and Mark Mullen, previous CEO at

First Direct First Direct (styled first direct) is a telephone and internet based retail bank division of HSBC Bank plc based in the United Kingdom. First Direct has headquarters in Leeds, England, and has 1.45 million customers. It was awarded Most T ...

. In June 2015, Atom was granted a banking licence and before launch in November 2015, Spanish bank

BBVA Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (), better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Bilbao, Spain. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, and is present ...

agreed to invest a substantial stake in Atom. The company launched to the public in April 2016, after its regulatory authorisation restrictions were lifted, initially to those who had expressed an interest previously and had been given a registration code. It launched more widely in October 2016 and today it offers mortgages and savings accounts, along with secured loans for small businesses. In 2017, Atom was named by LinkedIn as one of UK's top 25 startups and ranked 14th alongside companies such as Deliveroo, Uber and Airbnb, and in 2019, Atom ranked second in business analyst Beauhurst's list of 50 top fintech UK startups and scale-ups. It was the only company from outside London in the top 20 of the list.

Mobile app

Atom has apps for iOS and Android phones, offering biometric security, with customers able to sign in via face ID or voice ID.

References

External links

* {{Commercial and retail banks in the United Kingdom Banks of the United Kingdom Banks established in 2014 Companies based in County Durham