1.2 How important is the recognition that First Direct must be a communications company first and a financial services organisation second? First Direct was the first bank in the UK to offer banking services exclusively over the phone. It was launched in 1989 by Midland Bank, which was acquired by HSBC. Peter Simpson was one of the original members of a working group set up to develop a new approach to banking in 1988. He has been First Direct’s commercial director since 1991. He explains why First Direct was launched:

We had to find a way to differentiate ourselves from all other banks. Customer satisfaction with banks in general was low and customers felt the banks were all as bad as each other.

The existing notion was that a bank required the customer’s physical presence. We decided upon the radical idea of a purely telephone operation.