Craig will join from Santander, where he has spent the last five years as Regional Director building and managing commercial centres across the North East and Cumbria. He has a total of over 30 years of experience in financial services and from July will join Atom's existing senior team of Anthony Thomson (chairman), Mark Mullen (CEO), Edward Twiddy (COO), Stewart Bromley (HR Director) and Sophie Haagensen (Innovation).

Craig will focus on building Atom's business banking proposition, taking the bank's uniquely digital approach and tailoring it to create product and services offering addressing the specific needs of SME customers.

Atom will be headquartered in the North East of England, a region very familiar to Craig who has been managing commercial centres for Santander in Tees Valley, Gateshead and Carlisle. Prior to this Craig spent over 25 years in locations across the UK working in commercial banking roles at Alliance & Leicester and Lloyds TSB.

Anthony Thomson, chairman of Atom said: "Craig will play a crucial role in shaping and delivering what Atom has to offer to the SME community. His banking background and experience, as well as his longstanding track record in building up and operating financial services businesses out of the North East is exactly what Atom is looking for.

"Serving the SME market is a key part in our strategy and serving it in the best way is even more central to Atom's products and services delivery.

"We are at a pivotal point in Atom's development and our proposition is now really starting to take shape. I am excited to enter this next phase and to be working together with Craig and the rest of the team on developing what will be the first real alternative to the established high street banks. With Craig in place alongside Edward and Sophie we now have a senior team that knows the businesses, investors and people of the North East; so as we develop a digital bank we're also putting down roots in our operational homeland."