Atom bank welcomes Sir Dave Ramsden at a Fintech roundtable

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday 12th October 2018

Atom bank welcomes Sir Dave Ramsden at a Fintech roundtable

Atom bank was delighted to welcome Sir Dave Ramsden, Deputy Governor, Markets & Banking, Bank of England, to its Durham HQ at a roundtable of north eastern tech entrepreneurs.

Sir Dave’s attendance at the roundtable was part of a series of visits to a variety of organisations in the North East. Senior policymakers at the Bank of England regularly visit different regions in the UK, so they can hear first-hand the views of businesses and communities. This helps inform decision making at the Bank of England.

A broad range of firms local to the North East were round the table, alongside Sir Dave and Edward Twiddy from Atom. Participants included an early stage Durham University anti-counterfeiting spin out, well established Tyneside tech consultants and outsourcers, fintech firms from Durham and Darlington changing the terms of trade for insurance and accountancy, a multinational games business and a Newcastle start up at the bleeding edge of blockchain.

The group discussed the investment environment for tech and financial service firms, including the role of regional, national and international markets for finding the capital needed to grow their business.

Speaking after the event, Sir Dave Ramsden said; “I would like to extend my thanks to Atom bank for inviting me to the Fintech Roundtable. At the Bank of England, we take a keen interest in exploring how innovation and developments in fintech might support our mission to promote the good of the people of the UK by maintaining monetary and financial stability.”

Edward Twiddy, Atom bank’s Chief Innovation Officer said: “There is an overwhelming swell of new firms coming to challenge established ways of working between businesses and creating completely new experiences for people of all ages and stages. Atom is very much part of that movement, but we are one of many firms changing their industry with novel applications of technology, and increasingly doing this from the North East.

“Skills - tech and personal – and scale are critical to our combined success, so the roundtable was a great chance to discuss our firms’ collective response to the skills challenge and community of employers in the region who are dedicated to the next generation of schoolchildren and graduates.”

ENDS

Note to Editors

The attendees at the roundtable were:

• Jim Brown, My Firms App
• Phil Grand, Newcastle Strategic Solutions
• Boguslaw Obara, Durham University/Intogral Limited
• Mike O’Brien, Open Cast Software
• Paul Taylor, Thought Machine
• Gary Scott, Scott Logic
• Gavin Sewell, Honcho Markets Ltd
• Bill Shepherd, Intogral Limited
• Duncan Sperry, Aurora Transact
• Giselle Stewart OBE, Ubisoft
• Edward Twiddy, Atom bank

About Atom bank

After securing its banking license in June 2015, Atom bank launched operations in April 2016, offering market-leading Fixed Saver accounts and secured business lending for small and mediumsized enterprises (‘SMEs’). From the start, Atom set out to build a customer- driven bank, designed to meet their new needs and optimised for mobile technologies.

Atom bank launched its first mobile mortgage product a year ago and has recently announced it has taken £1.3bn of deposits and has now lent £1.2bn to small businesses and homeowners.

Atom bank are here to change banking, creating a disruptive and digital bank, keeping costs low and passing back the value to its customers. The Atom app is at the heart of the bank, with a 24/7 support team on hand to help with any customer queries through phone, chat, email and social media, working out of their Durham HQ.

The Atom executive team are highly experienced, having built and run some of the most well respected banks in the UK. CEO Mark Mullen has 25 years’ experience in the sector and was previously CEO at the multi- award winning telephone and internet bank first direct. The team are supported by a strong non-exec board, which includes newly appointed Chair, Bridget Rosewell. Bridget has also been the chair of Atom’s audit committee since 2014. She has an economics background and is also Chairman of the Driver Vehicle Standards Agency and on the board of Network Rail as well as a Commissioner with the National Infrastructure Commission.

Since its creation in April 2014, Atom has:

• Raised almost £400m of equity capital through the support of private and institutional investors, including BBVA, Woodford Investment Management and Toscafund Asset Management
• Built a highly motivated and experienced team of around 300 permanent employees
• Been ranked 8th in KPMG’s ‘Global 2017 Fintech 100’ listing, and uniquely in the EU have been top10 in this listing for the last three years.
• Ranked 1st in Tech World’s Digital Challengers list
• Ranked 14th in LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’
• Voted the UK’s most recommended bank
• Industry leading NPS scores in relation to Savings Product and Savings App Journey of 73%
• Trustpilot score of 5/5
• 98% of customers said they would recommend us on Reevoo
• Established a global network of partners and suppliers
• Launched 1, 2, 3 and 5 Year market-leading Fixed Saver accounts - Atom has nearly £1.3bn in deposits so far
• Launched Digital Mortgages by Atom bank, offering secured lending to SMEs and residential mortgage products - Atom has loaned around £1.2bn to date
• will.i.am joined Atom bank as a Strategic Board Advisor, giving an external perspective on culture, community and technology
• Partnered with Deposit Solutions and passported its deposit taking licence to Germany to access German retail savings market to diversify funding options and increase deposits
• Announced a four year STEM partnership with the Prince’s Trust in North East England
• Signed up to the Women in Finance Charter in 2016 and the Tech Talent Charter in 2017
• Announced the Atom Incubator to support North East startups at their HQ in Durham.