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

Tell us a bit about your career to date?

I’ve always been drawn to new initiatives and building new things.

At Northern Rock I was part of the initial team that built out its capital markets capability, and in particular the securitisation vehicles that drove the overall growth of the bank.

I later joined Tesco Bank, enthused by how we could take the data from the Tesco Clubcard and apply that to banking, in a world before AI and quantum computing.

Ultimately, if we can get deals over the line more quickly, everyone benefits

I also worked in the startup phase of Belmont Green as the founder team initiated the early stages of what would become Vida Homeloans.

More recently I joined Atom bank, seeking ways to disturb the traditional way of banking through speed, innovation and automation.

What is the main premise of your role?

My main remit is to drive the revenue of the business forward. I look after the trading of our key portfolio of products, in residential and commercial lending, as well as our platform investments, where we fund buy-to-let and other SME assets on a forward-flow basis via our partnerships with Landbay and Funding Circle respectively.

Alongside the day-to-day at Atom, I’ve recently joined the executive committee at the Open Property Data Association, to help support the industry in driving forward initiatives that will speed up the end-to-end mortgage journey for customers.

What is Atom’s USP?

We are committed to delivering a better experience to both our customers and the brokers they work with. That may seem an easy thing to say but, when you look at our proposition, I think we are helping to change the way the mortgage market works.

As an industry, we take too long to provide borrowers with the answers they need to make decisions

Speed is a great example: everyone in this industry knows how slow housing transactions can be. We have really focused on ways to speed up the mortgage process, so that brokers and borrowers are in an informed position as quickly as possible.

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

What was your reason for entering the industry? What other career path might you have chosen?

I’ve always been fascinated by how banks work.

It’s an industry that is often much maligned but helps facilitate so much of the economy, allowing prospective business owners to fulfil their dreams; as well as supporting so many customers with their homeowning aspirations, or their desire to protect their savings and build wealth. Something about that has always appealed to me.

I was seeking ways to disturb the traditional way of banking through speed, innovation and automation

My other great passion is sport and I’ve been lucky enough to help coach some local grassroots teams over the past few years. I’m fascinated by the evolving data aspects of high-performing team sports.

You have more than 25 years’ experience across financial services. What are the biggest challenges the sector has faced over this time?

The financial crisis was the big one, and we are still seeing the impact today. The mortgage market has changed incredibly since then. The regulation that followed was clearly needed, but there were concerns it would be onerous and hold back innovation.

The results have been far more positive, though. As an industry, we have been far better able to ride out the market shocks — and there have been plenty of them since — without seeing quite such a dramatic impact on borrowers and savers alike

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

If we look ahead, technology — and specifically AI — is the obvious challenge on the horizon. The difficulty will be in working out where to implement it and where to limit its use.

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

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

We’ve made tremendous progress at Atom bank, but there’s a lot of work still to be done.

Ultimately, if we can get deals over the line more quickly, everyone benefits.

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This article featured in the July/August 2026 edition of Mortgage Strategy.

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