App based banking – Atom

27/10/2017

What is Atom: an app based bank? Basically there are no branches and they don’t act like conventional banks. They use biometric security: face and voice recognition to log into their app. Everyone who joins Atom is given their own unique personalised brand. Put simply they get to name their own bank, have their own logo and can even apply their own colour palette to the app. The low cost model allows customers to reap the benefits with better rates and overall value.

Do they incentivise people to switch? In a word no. The idea of Atom is to be something completely different to the rest of the banking industry. They are avoiding entering a price war with other providers. They argue that typically incentives are clawed back over time anyway, thus being paid for by the customer. Value for money and providing a great experience are the only incentives Atom offer.

What does this mean for the future?

This seems the next logical step from cloud based accountancy. It is another massive step into the new cloud world which is forming around us all. Offering banking with no branches and with all access via an application on a mobile or tablet may seem very advanced, but certainly doesn’t seem unrealistic given the rise in all variations of cloud based software. Who knows how many years it might be until all banks operate without branches.