Company report: First Direct

First Direct, the telephone and online bank owned by HSBC, is one of the largest employers in Yorkshire with 3,200 staff, of whom almost 2,500 work at its vast, aircraft hangar-like building about ten minutes south of Leeds city centre.

Despite the rising popularity of online banking, First Direct has not reduced the number of people it employs in the call centre that occupies most of the building. Colin Storrar, chief financial officer (pictured), says that many customers will log on for simple tasks such as checking balances or transferring funds, but want to speak to someone for more complex transactions. He adds that staff are not given scripts to follow and are under no pressure to deal with calls as quickly as possible, which is perhaps one reason why First Direct was voted the UK’s top call centre for customer service this year.

Staff turnover is lower than the industry average partly because the bank pays considerable attention to staff satisfaction. There are 1,000 shift patterns for a workforce that is almost 40 per cent part-time and it has one of Europe’s largest on-site crèches, with places for 350 children.

Mr Storrar attributes the bank’s continued success to its commitment to innovation and it is now moving into what he describes as the “third wave” of direct banking.

First Direct pioneered mobile banking in Britain, sending texts to alert customers to major transactions or overdraft breaches, and was the first UK bank to introduce an application for the Apple iPhone, which has proved very popular with its technologically savvy customers.

The bank has about 1.2 million customers and, although it is expanding, Mr Storrar said: “We have no ambition to be a mass-market brand; we know which customers will sit well with First Direct. If we can attract more of them, then we’ll be open to that.”

Although HSBC does not break down First Direct’s financial performance, Mr Storrar says it is “very robust” and has been profitable since 1995, six years after it was set up. Being a division of Britain’s biggest bank — one that has not had to ask for government funding during the credit crunch — has allowed First Direct to offer market-leading home-loan deals that have increased its mortgage book by 40 per cent, compared with this time last year.

Mr Storrar likens his bank’s relationship with its parent to that between Mini and BMW: “First Direct allows HSBC to have a wider footprint than it otherwise might, in the same way that Mini is the ‘cooler’ brand for BMW.”

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