Metro Bank: Lender returned to profit over first half of 2025
Metro Bank has revealed it returned to a profit over the first half of 2025 after slashing costs across the business and ramping up corporate lending.
The London-listed business reported a statutory pre-tax profit of £43.1m for the first six months of the year, up from the £33.5m loss reported the same period a year ago.
Total revenues, on an underlying basis, surged by 22 per cent to £286m compared with a year ago.
Metro said operating costs fell by 8 per cent year on year.
This follows the business making heavy cuts to its cost base, including trimming its workforce by about 30 per cent. It now has some 2,500 employees nationwide.
It also scrapped the seven-day-a-week opening hours across its branches – once a central feature of the banking group – which, in 2010, was the first high street bank to launch in the UK in more than 100 years.
Metro has 76 branches, which it calls “stores”, and says it still has the longest opening hours of a high street bank.
Daniel Frumkin, Metro’s chief executive, confirmed the company had no further plans for significant cost reductions and said the majority of staff cuts were made last year.
“We don’t have any plans any other further major restructures or any further real cost-cutting … we’ve done all of the heavy lifting,” he said.
Meanwhile, Metro said it doubled the amount of new lending to corporate, commercial and small business customers to a record £1bn over the period.
The move formed part of efforts to sharpen its focus on specialist lending.
Metro secured a funding package worth £925m in 2023, helping secure its future on British high streets.
Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal became a majority shareholder in the group after contributing through his firm Spaldy Investments.
Mr Gilinski Bacal is “still engaged in the business and he is committed to making sure Metro continues to deliver on its plans going forward”, Mr Frumkin said.
The chief executive said: “Metro Bank’s strong performance in the first half of the year reflects the successful execution of our strategy and decisive actions we have taken.
"We trebled profits, doubled new lending to corporate, commercial and SME customers, meaningfully reduced operating costs and optimised funding to have the lowest cost of deposits of any UK high street bank.
“As we celebrate our 15-year anniversary, our unique relationship-led model, specialist lending expertise and expanding store network allows us to support customers, communities and help businesses to grow.
"This differentiates Metro Bank and fuels our growth. Looking ahead, we have a clear path to growth, delivering mid-to-upper teens RoTE (return on tangible equity) by 2027, with cost of deposits and operating costs both already below levels needed to meet 2027 targets.
"We are confident in reconfirming guidance, as the actions we have already taken continue to build momentum to 2027 and beyond.”
In a statement to accompany the results, Metro Bank said that stores remain a key element to the group’s service offering and strategy, as an “enabler of its relationship-based approach”.
The statement added: “Metro Bank opened a new store in Chester in July 2025, and two new stores are set to open in Gateshead and Salford later in 2025, with all locations selected to support both local consumers and our growing corporate, commercial and SME banking offer and local communities.”