TECHNOLOGY is changing to be very mobile-centric ,” he says . “ We ’ ve been researching this topic for years . Back then there were 8.7 million adults in the country that wanted to bank digitally-only , and felt disenfranchised . Those people were underserved by the industry , and the segment has grown at a rate of two million customers a year .

“ There was a total gap in the market , so Atom didn ’ t do this for Atom ’ s sake – it was because there was an underserved community that wasn ’ t getting what it wanted . You can argue that other banks have some form of mobile banking access , but they ’ re not a mobile bank .”

Creating a digital-only bank includes the advantage of delivering better technology geared specifically to the proposition being created , along with a much lower cost base thanks to it being a self-service bank . According to Bromley , the customer receives a better experience and better value ,

thanks to Atom running at a lower cost than other banks . He knew from his consulting work that banks ’ biggest threat was digital start-ups , which wouldn ’ t need to grow new digital capabilities on an existing mess of technology and processes . “ It ’ s not that established banks don ’ t want to advance , it ’ s that they physically can ’ t because of the technology layers they already have ,” says

Bromley . “ You ’ ve got to either start from fresh , or sub-brand which involves cannibalising your own company . Banks are spending millions on digital and marketing , but the amount of actual functionality they ’ re creating for customers is negligible . You can start a new bank and launch a complete suite of products for a tenth of the money , and it ’ s so much easier to keep abreast of technology ’ s swift pace . If you can ’ t keep up , you ’ re never going to survive . We ’ re leapfrogging the high street banks .”

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