Metro Bank, the high street lender challenging the big five retail banks in the UK, reported a 33 per cent growth in underlying profits in the most recent quarter, thanks to attracting more than £1bn in new deposits in the period for the first time ever.
The bank, which became the first new UK retail lender in more than a century when it opened in 2010, said that deposits rose 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to the end of March, to £9bn.
Lending increased by 11 per cent to £6.5bn helping underlying profit before tax hit £2m. A record 72,000 accounts were opened in the period, taking its total to 987,000.
“We continue to grow the business, and remain on track to open a further ten stores before the year end,” said chief executive Craig Donaldson.
Founder and chairman, American billionaire Vernon Hill, reportedly an acquaintance of Donald Trump, said that Metro Bank “remains a revolution in British banking, championing the right of every customer to receive service and convenience tailored to their needs”.
Metro Bank is broadly known for its quirky culture.
It calls those who bank with it ‘fans’ rather than clients or customers, and – in an usual welcome ritual – new employees reportedly join a conga line around the bank’s head office.
The bank hopes to steal market share from its more established rivals by offering of seven-day-a-week opening times, same-day account opening and branches with free doggy biscuits and coin-counting machines for children.
