Atom Bank
Banking Innovation From The Home Of The Industrial Revolution
In association with Newcastle City Council
Words by Arlen Pettitt
Photography & Videography by Christopher Owens
Launched in 2015, Atom Bank was the first digital-only challenger bank to be granted a full UK banking license by the regulator.
Having been founded in Durham, the business moved to Newcastle in 2025.
They are now based in the Pattern Shop, fitting the building out to create a modern, collaborative workspace in what was once home to Robert Stephenson’s locomotive business.
“Newcastle’s got a heart and soul, It’s got lots of culture, it’s got lots of entertainment, it’s got good transport links. It’s just a vibrant place to be.”
Mark Mullen
Atom Bank, CEO
The parallels aren’t lost on the founders of the business, as they seek to disrupt their own industry in the 21st Century the same way Stephenson did in the 19th Century.
“When we founded the company,” explains chief executive Mark Mullen, who started Atom after a career with the likes of HSBC and First Direct, “we wanted to change banking for good, for the better, for everybody. Our assessment was that banking as a service or experience was poor and relatively undifferentiated and took customers for granted.”
This ethos is echoed by Mark’s co-founder Edward Twiddy, a former senior Treasury official and director of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.
“The idea was to build something that was direct and digital,” Edward says. “We were the first of the app-based banks. We are a bank that wants to support people to own their own homes and grow their businesses.”
“We were the first of the app-based banks. We are a bank that wants to support people to own their own homes and grow their businesses.”
Edward Twiddy
Atom Bank, Co-Founder
That ethos has seen Atom grow rapidly and become the UK’s number one rated bank on Trustpilot.
They employ 600 people across a range of roles including software engineering, customer support, and mortgage and lending specialists.
Atom attracts team members with an offer centred around a four day week, strong benefits and annual salaries which average £70,000.
More than 80% of Atom’s employee base comes from Newcastle or the surrounding area, joining from the region’s universities or other North East employers.
“What we were looking for when we built the company here,” Mullen says, “was to be able to access the talent pool, but to also create a company which allowed people to be here in the region without having to go to London or the South East to pursue a career.”
Atom invests in that talent pipeline at an early stage, with some team leaders within the business having started as interns from one of the region’s five universities.
The business also has a women in tech initiative which funds scholarships at Durham University, and a futures fund which supports young people with care experience or who are carers themselves to engage with Russell Group universities.
Over the last few years, Atom have increasingly been embedding AI into what they do and are at the centre of the artificial intelligence sector in the North East. They are working closely with industry, the region’s tech sector and higher education to explore what’s possible.
“We can come up with products and systems which are increasingly personalised because of the quality of the information we have,” Twiddy explains. “That can help you manage your money and your life closer to your precise needs without any more effort. Can we help you borrow at exactly the right moment and repay it at exactly the right time?”
“What we were looking for when we built the company here, was to be able to access the talent pool, but to also create a company which allowed people to be here in the region without having to go to London or the South East to pursue a career.”
Having successfully challenged the industry as it stood just 12 years ago, Atom are now deep into that next phase of technology-driven innovation, with a desire to push forward based around customer needs.
For Atom Bank, Newcastle is the perfect place to take on that next set of challenges.
“Newcastle’s got a heart and soul,” Mullen says. “It’s got lots of culture, it’s got lots of entertainment, it’s got good transport links. It’s just a vibrant place to be.”
Atom Bank
Video case study featuring Atom Bank