Atom bank says UK ‘dominated’ by major lenders, as it cheers record profits

The digital bank reported its first annual pre-tax profit since launching a decade ago.

Atom bank has criticised the dominance of large UK lenders who provide ‘indifferent’ customer service (Atom/PA)

Atom bank has criticised the dominance of large UK lenders who provide “indifferent” customer service, as the app-based bank cheered a record year of profits.

The digital bank, which offers savings accounts, mortgages and loans, revealed it made an operating profit of £27 million for the year to the end of March.

This was about seven times higher than the previous year.

It also reported its first annual pre-tax profit since launching a decade ago.

The company, which is the only British bank to give employees a four-day week without reducing their salary, cheered the financial performance as its “best year yet”.

UK banking remains dominated by players with low growth, high costs and indifferent customer service

Mark Mullen, Atom's chief executive

Chief executive Mark Mullen said it was difficult for challengers to “disrupt the status quo” in the banking sector.

“UK banking remains dominated by players with low growth, high costs and indifferent customer service,” he said.

“We remain entirely focused on serving the needs of borrowers and savers, without the soaring costs and operational complexity of transactional banking products like current accounts.”

The bank said it had “comfortably outperformed the major high street lenders and building societies when it comes to offering savings customers a better deal”.

Atom currently offers annual interest rates of up to 5.15% on some of its fixed-rate savings products.

The bank also revealed that customers borrowed £4.1 billion in total last year, 39% more than the previous year, with residential mortgage balances soaring by 55%.

The Durham-based company said it had managed to keep its business costs low throughout the year, and had raised £100 million from existing investors in November.

In 2021 it introduced a four-day working week for its approximately 500 staff, with no change in salary, a move which it said led to a rise in applications for roles at the firm.