Chris Storey, chief commercial officer at Atom bank – Mortgage Strategy

Tell us about your career so far?

I have always been attracted to new initiatives and building new things.

At Northern Rock, I was part of the early team that built out the capital markets capabilities, and in particular the securitization vehicles that powered the bank’s overall growth.

I later joined Tesco Bank, excited about how we could take the Tesco Clubcard data and apply it to banking, in a world before AI and quantum computing.

If we can get deals across the finish line faster, everyone ultimately benefits

I also worked in the start-up phase of Belmont Green as the founding team initiated the initial phases of what would become Vida Homeloans.

More recently, I joined Atom Bank looking for ways to disrupt the traditional way of banking through speed, innovation and automation.

What is the premise of your role?

My main task is to drive the company’s sales forward. I look after the trading of our core product portfolio, across residential and commercial lending, as well as our platform investments, where we finance buy-to-let and other SME assets on a forward-flow basis through our partnerships with Landbay and Funding Circle respectively.

In addition to my day-to-day work at Atom, I recently joined the Executive Committee of the Open Property Data Association to help the industry drive initiatives that will accelerate the end-to-end mortgage journey for customers.

What is Atom’s USP?

We strive to provide a better experience for both our customers and the brokers they work with. That may seem easy to say, but if you look at our proposal, I think we will help change the way the mortgage market works.

As an industry, we are taking too long to give borrowers the answers they need to make decisions

Speed ​​is a good example: everyone in this industry knows how slow housing transactions can be. We’ve really focused on ways to speed up the mortgage process so that brokers and borrowers can get up to speed as quickly as possible.

By working with brokers and investing in the right technology, we have streamlined parts of that process, using automation where it can be most effective.

What made you get into the industry? What other career path might you have chosen?

I have always been fascinated by the way banks work.

It is a sector that is often heavily maligned, but which helps facilitate a large part of the economy, allowing potential entrepreneurs to realize their dreams; and supporting so many customers with their aspirations to own a home, or their desire to protect their savings and build wealth. Something about that has always appealed to me.

I looked for ways to break the traditional way of banking through speed, innovation and automation

My other great passion is sports and I have been fortunate to coach a number of local grassroots teams in recent years. I’m fascinated by the evolving data aspects of high-performance team sports.

You have more than 25 years of experience in financial services. What are the biggest challenges the sector has faced in recent times?

The financial crisis was the big one and we are still seeing its impact. The mortgage market has changed incredibly since then. The subsequent regulation was clearly necessary, but there were concerns that it would be burdensome and hinder innovation.

However, the results are much more positive. As an industry, we have been much better able to weather the market shocks – and there have been plenty since – without seeing such a dramatic impact on both borrowers and savers.

We have streamlined parts of the process, using automation where it can be most effective

Looking ahead, technology – and AI in particular – is the obvious challenge on the horizon. The difficulty will be figuring out where to implement it and where to limit its use.

If you could only change one thing in the mortgage market, what would it be?

It would have to be the speeds. As an industry, we take too long to provide borrowers with the answers they need to make decisions, and then the money to actually make a purchase.

We have made tremendous progress at Atom Bank, but much work remains to be done.

If we can get deals across the finish line faster, everyone ultimately benefits.

This article appeared in the July/August 2026 edition of Mortgage strategy.

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