£126m boost for Metro Bank plans

Metro Bank's plans to shake-up the high street lending market have been boosted after it raised £126 million to fund its ambitious expansion plans.

The bank, which has 12 branches in Greater London, said the fundraising has made it one of the strongest capitalised lenders in the world and will help it open an additional seven sites by the end of 2012.

Chief executive Craig Donaldson told the Sunday Times that the bank, which already has 80,000 personal and business accounts, also plans a money-making flotation on the stock market, although not until 2014 at the earliest.


Metro started two years ago when it became the first high street bank to launch in the UK for more than 100 years and promised to revolutionise the British banking experience.

It plans to grow to 200 stores by 2020 as it looks to build a stronghold in London and the Home Counties.

Its expansion comes at a time when many of the biggest names in banking have announced job cuts in the UK following the financial crisis.

Mr Donaldson said: "The capital raise will further strengthen our growth plans and build on our firm foundation.

"We have ambitious expansion plans, and customer reaction to the Metro Bank model means that we are confident in achieving our ambitions.

"Londoners are flocking to us to open accounts and we've been blown away by local reaction to our style of community banking."

The planned seven branches - including in Brighton, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Romford, Staines and Epsom - will see its staff numbers boosted to 700 by the end of the current year.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/ (Metro Bank)

More stories