direct type division of hsbc bank plc industry banking insurance founded 1989 headquarters leeds west yorkshire england products credit cards loans savings mortgage loans stockbroking parent hsbc bank plc website www.firstdirect.com first direct styled first direct is a telephone and internet based retail bank in the united kingdom a division of hsbc bank plc. first direct has headquarters in leeds west yorkshire england and has 1.25 million customers . 1 it maintains a reputation for superior customer service awarded most trusted financial provider by moneywise first place in the 2015 which customer service survey and winning five awards in the british bank awards 2016 . 2 3 4 first direct is based at two call centres in stourton leeds and hamilton south lanarkshire scotland . hamilton is the larger of the two call centres . the leeds call centre handles risk assessment and some processing activities and the hamilton call centre shares space with hsbc direct banking . history edit first direct was formed on 1 october 1989 by midland bank one of the big 4 banks in the uk . in 1992 it became a part of hsbc following that business s acquisition of midland bank . first direct took its first call on 12.01 am on 1 october 1989 ; more than 1 000 calls were taken within the first 24 hours . the launch of first direct in 1989 was advertised with different adverts run concurrently on itv and channel 4 one offering a negative view showing the aspects of normal banking and the other a positive view of first direct . 5 6 by may 1991 the bank had 100 000 customers on its books and by march 1993 it had 250 000 . it first achieved breakeven in december 1994 . in april 1995 the bank gained its 500 000th customer . in may 1999 it launched text message sms banking a service through which the bank alerts customers by sms if the balance on their current account goes below a certain amount and if set will send weekly mini statements also by sms . the bank began limited trials of internet banking in july 1997 launching the service fully in august 2000 . in july 2001 the bank s offset mortgage was launched . in january 2004 the bank launched first directory a service whereby additional services were added to current accounts such as free text message banking annual travel insurance and mobile phone insurance for a fixed monthly charge . in april 2004 the bank launched internet banking plus a service whereby account information was taken by third party internet banking from the bank s other accounts with different banks and the information was unified under first direct s internet banking plus service . in 2006 the bank launched a first generation mobile phone banking service in partnership with monilink pre dating mobile apps . 7 in february 2007 first direct became the first uk bank to introduce a fee for basic financial transactions fuelling concern for the future of fee free banking in the uk for personal customers . 8 9 in 2013 first direct secured naming rights until 2018 for the new leeds arena to be known as the first direct arena . in 2014 first direct brought about considerable adverse publicity when it decided to oblige existing customers of many years standing to re establish their identities at the cost of those customers and in 2015 this was taken one stage further with more bad publicity when it decided to introduce an obligatory 20 30 minute fact find phone call for existing customers wishing to open an additional account of any kind including savings accounts . 10 11 references edit press area information for journalists . first direct . retrieved 2015 01 21 . customer service awards 2015 . moneywise . retrieved 2015 08 24 . best banks for customer satisfaction . bank accounts . which . retrieved 2015 08 24 . british bank awards winners 2016 . british bank awards . retrieved 2016 05 09 . hhcl a short history of british television advertising pdf . national media museum . retrieved 2015 08 24 . hsbc and first direct break new ground with launch of next generation mobile phone banking through monilink press release . 2006 10 04 . retrieved 2015 08 24 . hutchinson sascha 2006 11 15 . first direct to end free banking . this is money . retrieved 2013 07 14 . hsbc becomes first uk bank to end free banking . the money stop . 2006 11 16 . retrieved 2013 07 14 . http forums.moneysavingexpert.com showthread.php t 5037121 http forums.moneysavingexpert.com showthread.php p 69458241 external links edit official website v t e hsbc board of directors douglas flint group chairman stuart gulliver group ceo iain mackay group finance director marc moses group chief risk officer phillip ameen kathleen l. casey safra a. catz laura cha lord evans of weardale joachim faber rona fairhead sam laidlaw john lipsky rachel lomax heidi miller sir simon robertson jonathan symonds brands first direct hang seng bank hsbc hsbc expat hsbc premier hsbc private bank hsbc trinkaus m & s money proa sabb principal local banks argentina australia canada people s republic of china egypt france germany hong kong india malaysia middle east mexico panama poland saudi arabia sri lanka taiwan turkey united kingdom united states minority stakes and joint ventures bank of communications 19 % hsbc saudi arabia 60 % sabb 40 % ping an insurance 19.9 % techcombank 15 % bank of shanghai 8 % predecessor companies grupo banistmo bank of british columbia barclays bank canada beneficial continental bank of canada cr dit commercial de france greenwich savings bank guyerzeller household imperial bank of persia lloyds bank canada marine midland bank midland bank republic new york samuel montagu & co. williamsburgh savings bank former susbsidiaries hsbc bank brazil category commons wikiversity v t e commercial and retail banks in the united kingdom banking in the united kingdom barclays barclays bank barclays wealth cybg clydesdale bank yorkshire bank hsbc holdings first direct hsbc bank hsbc private bank m & s bank lloyds banking group1 bank of scotland bank of wales birmingham midshires halifax lloyds bank royal bank of scotland group2 adam and company child & co. coutts & co. drummonds bank natwest royal bank of scotland ulster bank santander group cahoot cater allen santander uk wholly state owned national savings and investments post office money uk financial investments uk asset resolution bradford & bingley3 nram3 other airdrie savings bank al rayan bank aldermore allied irish bank gb first trust bank arbuthnot latham & co secure trust bank bank and clients bank of ireland butterfield bank cambridge & counties bank c. hoare & co close brothers group the co operative bank smile danske bank duncan lawrie handelsbanken harrods bank icici bank uk julian hodge bank kingdom bank kleinwort benson metro bank monzo onesavings bank raphaels bank reliance bank n m rothschild & sons sainsbury s bank sg hambros shawbrook bank standard chartered tesco bank triodos bank tsb unity trust bank virgin money big four banks are underlined and private banks are shown in italics 1 10 % owned by ukfi 2 73 % owned by ukfi 3 mortgage assets only retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title first direct & oldid 730445751 categories banks of the united kingdomhsbccompanies based in leedssouth lanarkshirebanks established in 1989online bankshidden categories use dmy dates from july 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 19 july 2016 at 02 07 . text is available under the creative commons 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