Alastair Hanton

Career

After graduating, 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.

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

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

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

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. Originally named automatic debit transfer, it commenced operation, as a paper-based system, in 1964,

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

Charity and campaign work

Hanton was one of the founders of The Fairtrade Foundation.

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

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