Anthony Thomson
Founder of Atom Bank, Metro Bank and 86400
Profile
Anthony Thomson
Founder of Atom Bank, Metro Bank and 86400
Anthony Thomson is, at heart, a marketer, who believes passionately that profit should be the by-product of giving the customer a better product, service or experience.
In the 1990s he built Europe’s largest financial services specialist agency, City Financial Marketing, purchased by Publicis in 1998.
He then went on to put his beliefs into practice as the founder and former chairman of two of the UK’s leading challenger banks.
The first, Metro Bank, launched in 2010. Starting with one location it now has over 60 branches,3000 employees and a market cap in excess of $5 billion.
The second, Atom Bank, was the UK’s first bank built for mobile. Atom was voted no 6 In the KPMG survey of the world’s 100 leading fintech innovators for 2017, and no 4 in the Challenger Project’s list of the top 10 global innovative brands. BDRC research in March 2017 described atom as the UK’s most recommended bank.
In June 2018 he announced his role as co-founder and chair of 86 400, the first real alternative to the big 4 Australian banks. 86 400 is currently awaiting authorisation by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority and plans to launch a full service mobile-delivered bank in early 2019.
He is also the co-founder and chairman of the Financial Services Forum, the UK’s leading membership organisation for senior marketers and the former Chairman of the National Skills Academy for Financial Services, the UK’s leading employer-led charity.
He is co-author (with Lucian Camp) of No small change, why financial services needs better marketing, published by Wiley in June 2018.
From 2011 to 2014 he served as visiting professor to London Metropolitan University Business School.
He served as the David Goldman Visiting Professor of business innovation and enterprise at Newcastle University Business School from 2017 to 2018.
He also serves on the advisory board of Bank ABC, a leading bank based in Bahrain.