Metro Bank appoints head of private banking

Julie Barnsley has been appointed as head of Metro Bank’s private banking offering, where she will be responsible for overseeing services for high net worth clients.

The appointment is in direct response to a boom in demand; private banking now accounts for around a fifth of Metro Bank’s operations.

Julie will retain her responsibilities as commercial banking director, in which capacity she has overseen significant growth in the commercial deposit book and specialist sector banking. She will co-ordinate both the private clients and private commercial clients teams led by Jon Collins and Chris Burge.

She commented: “Since first embarking on my banking career, it’s always been the traditional service-led aspects of good old-fashioned relationship banking that have appealed to me the most, and that ethos sits at the very heart of Metro Bank. I’m proud of our offering, and I look forward to building on its success.”

CEO Craig Donaldson added: “Julie has been with us since the very beginning of the Metro Bank journey, and she has made an outstanding contribution to growing and developing our commercial banking offering. I am confident that she will make a significant impact in expanding and growing our private banking offering.”

Julie joined Metro Bank shortly after it first opened, in 2010. Prior to this she held a number of senior positions at Barclays, where she was based for five years, and Bank of Scotland, where she worked for more than 17 years.