Chris Pitt of First Direct: ‘We’re the best unfound bank in Britain’
Chris Pitt had an unusual start to his banking career. In the middle of a history degree at Loughborough University in the early 1980s, the working-class lad from east London’s Upton Park found himself with a holiday job usually earmarked for trustworthy retirees: handling cheques worth millions of pounds.
“When I couldn’t get any jobs, my grandma and one of my great- uncles got me job as a messenger. You used to walk between banks in the City with paper cheques,” says the chief of internet bank First Direct.
Pitt claims he was never tempted to take the money and run. “You’ve got to remember I’m a Jesuit schoolboy. It’s not in my DNA to do that,” he grins.
It was that dependability that helped him climb the ladder at HSBC, where, more than 30 years after his cheque-shuttling years, he is now running its branchless retail bank, First Direct.
Launched in 1989 by Midland Bank, First Direct was the UK’s first telephone-based lender, offering then-revolutionary around-the-clock service to customers accustomed to a branch network that operated from 9am-4pm only on weekdays. First Direct was bought by HSBC as part of its acquisition of Midland in 1992, and launched internet banking alongside its telephone service in 2000, more than a decade before fintechs such as Monzo, Starling and Revolut burst onto the scene.
Pitt’s route to the executive chair was unconventional. While bouncing between high-profile marketing roles at lenders including HSBC and Tesco Bank, he gained a reputation as a steady hand before applying for the First Direct chief executive role in 2020 on a whim. He clinched the job – which
Age 55
Family Married to Tracey for 29 years. Two grown-up sons.
Education The Campion school, Hornchurch. History degree from
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