Alastair Hanton

Alastair Hanton OBE
Born(1926-10-10)10 October 1926[1][2]
Died26 May 2021(2021-05-26) (aged 94)[1][2]
Alma materPembroke College, Cambridge[1][2]
Occupation(s)Civil servant, banker, social entrepreneur, transport campaigner
OrganizationGirobank[1][2][3][4]
Known forInventor of direct debit.[1][2][5][3][4][6]
SpouseMargaret Lumsden[1][2]
Children3
Websitehttps://hanton.co.uk/

Alastair Kydd Hanton OBE (10 October 1926 – 26 May 2021) was a British banker, transport campaigner, and social entrepreneur who invented the direct debit system in 1964.

Hanton was awarded an OBE in the 1986 New Year Honours on his retirement as deputy managing director of National Girobank.

Biography

Early life

Hanton was born in north London on 10 October 1926.[1][2]

His father, Peter Kydd Hanton, worked as an architect for the Ministry of Works.[1] His mother, Maud (née Evans) was a secretary.[2]

Education

Following schooling at Mill Hill School, including a period evacuated to St Bees in Cumberland during World War II, Hanton went to Pembroke College, Cambridge to study maths and economics.[1][2][4]

Career

After graduating, a 22-year-old Hanton joined the newly founded government overseas aid organisation, the Colonial Development Corporation, in 1948, and after two years at head office in London, he was posted to Malawi to plan public works.[7][8]

In 1957, Hanton took a job at the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC, now 3i) which provided financial support for small firms.[9][10] A year later, in 1958, Hanton joined the Economics and Statistics Division of Unilever.[11]

After joining Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation in 1964[10] he developed the use of the discounted cash flow technique and contributed to the book The Finance and Analysis of Capital Projects.[12][8]

Hanton left Rio Tinto after four years to help found the new National Giro in 1968, retiring from the organisation 18 years later in 1987.[8]

Direct debit

Direct debit was invented by Alastair Hanton while he was working at Unilever as a way of collecting payments more efficiently from Wall's ice cream sellers.[5][6] Originally named automatic debit transfer it commenced operation, as a paper-based system, in 1964,[2] becoming widely available from 1968.[1]

"I began with the name automatic debit transfer (ADT) and then during the discussion we shortened that… direct debit was, well, more direct…"

— Alastair Hanton[13][6]

National Giro

Further information: Girobank

In 1982 Hanton was promoted from Operations Director to Deputy Managing Director.[14]

In 1985, Hanton initiated the LINK ATM network that allowed customers to withdraw money from ATMs of banks other than their own.[4][15]

Charity and campaign work

Hanton was one of the founders of The Fairtrade Foundation.[16]

Hanton also founded the Environmental Transport Association, was vice-chairman of Christian Aid, chair of Living Streets and the London Cycling Campaign.[16]

Family

Hanton married Margaret Lumsden, a market researcher and Cambridge graduate in 1956. They had two sons and a daughter.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Alastair Hanton, former Unilever executive who invented the Direct Debit – obituary". The Telegraph. 9 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Alastair Hanton obituary". The Guardian. 11 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Alastair Hanton obituary". The Times. 18 June 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d "Life Story". Hanton. Alastair Hanton. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Ice cream to fintech: 50 years of Direct Debit". GoCardless.
  6. ^ a b c Nye, Claudia (8 April 2014). How Direct Debit began in the UK. C A N Films – via YouTube.
  7. ^ "A tribute to CDC alum Alastair Hanton, who worked here from 1948-1954". CDC Group. 28 May 2021.
  8. ^ a b c "Alastair Hanton, former Unilever executive who invented the Direct Debit – obituary". The Telegraph. 9 June 2021.
  9. ^ "Life Story". Hanton. Alastair Hanton. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  10. ^ a b "Alastair Hanton obituary". The Guardian. 11 June 2021.
  11. ^ "Alastair Hanton obituary". The Times. 18 June 2021.
  12. ^ Merritt, A. J.; Sykes, Allen (1963). "Acknowledgements". The Finance and Analysis of Capital Projects. Wiley. p. IX. ISBN 978-0-471-59615-8. We should like to thank Jack Bennett of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) and Alastair K. Hanton of Unilever Ltd., with whom a number of the more complex topics in the book have been fruitfully discussed."
  13. ^ "Hanton".
  14. ^ "Business appointments". The Times. No. 61, 132. 15 January 1982. p. 12. Mr Alastair Hanton has been appointed deputy managing director of National Girobank. He was formerly senior director.
  15. ^ Prestridge, Jeff (19 June 2021). "A warm farewell...". Mail on Sunday. At National Girobank ... Hanton was also instrumental in establishing a cash machine network (now known as Link) that customers of all banks could use to withdraw cash free of charge.
  16. ^ a b Hanton, Angus (10 June 2021). "Alastair Hanton (1926 – 2021) – Social entrepreneur & banking innovator". Foundation for Integrated Transport.