chat function. Next year we’ll have video and voice to accompany that. There’s a level of intelligence that’s been thought through to deliver the best customer experience.” Atom’s biggest challenge at the start was funding. “We’re a start-up and we don’t have big pockets,” Bromley explains. “Banking is certainly not for the faint-hearted.” It’s a tightly-regulated industry, and start-ups have very little negotiation power. While many companies can launch with only a few hundred pounds behind them, banks require several million just to meet the basic regulations; Atom had to raise £100 million at the very least, and managed £135 million to get started. “That’s before getting a single penny of income. The shareholders want a return as soon as possible, so you
immediately have to deliver at an incredible pace on a shoestring. But we’ve always got over our hurdles and have risen to the challenges of the job. Today we’re doing pretty damn well.” Bromley and his team are deeply passionate about the concept of digital-only banking and its place in a sector that is otherwise outdated, and believes strongly in its mission statement of ‘changing banking for good’. “The future of the digital bank is based on what customers want, and the behaviour that customers are demanding,” Bromley concludes. “Having the speed and agility to stay with the technology that the high street can’t compete with, and a cost-income ratio which makes all the difference – that’s a pretty compelling proposition.”
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