Hill becomes lender’s new chairman

METRO Bank, which launched in 2010 as Britain’s first new high street lender for more than a century, said yesterday it had appointed co-founder Vernon Hill as its new chairman.

Mr Hill, who was vice chairman, replaces co-founder Anthony Thomson. In September last year, Metro Bank announced that Mr Thomson was to step down at the end of 2012 to focus on other business activities.

The pair set up the bank to challenge Britain’s dominant high street banks and the business has grown rapidly, taking advantage of the unpopularity of established operators.

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Metro Bank has 15 branches in London and south-east England, with a total of more than 130,000 personal and business accounts.

The lender aims to grow to 200 outlets in the Greater London area by 2020.

Metro Bank started in 2010 with four stores in Holborn, Earl’s Court, Fulham and Borehamwood.

“Vernon was the natural choice as chairman to lead Metro Bank’s exciting growth plans,” Metro Bank chief executive Craig Donaldson said in a statement. “His unrivalled banking expertise, coupled with his innate understanding of how to build a business based on customer satisfaction have been an incredible support since Metro Bank’s inception. Vernon is best placed to be the chairman of Metro Bank through its next stage of growth.”

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Metro Bank raised £126m in June from external investors to fund future expansion and is planning a stock market floatation in 2014. The bank said at the time that the fundraising had made it one of the strongest capitalised lenders in the world.