Metro Bank full year trading update 2019
- Financial performance reflects a challenging year
- Balance sheet strength retained
- Strong annual growth in customer accounts
- Ambition to become the UK’s best community bank
Summary:
- Underlying loss before tax of £11.7m (2018: £50m profit) reflecting balance sheet strengthening actions, IFRS 16 impact and debt interest expense.
- Statutory loss before tax of £130.8m (2018: £40.6m profit) primarily reflecting a £68m write-down of intangible assets (no impact on regulatory capital).
- 21% growth in retail and SME core deposits to £10.2bn (2018: £8.4bn).
- Net fee and other income up 43%, driven by customer growth and the launch of fee-earning services.
- Strong capital position with Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 15.6% (2018: 13.1%).
- Surpassed 2.0 million customer accounts (2018: 1.6m).
- Rated no. 1 for service in stores and for online and mobile banking.
- Strategic ambition to become the UK’s best community bank.
- Strategic plan revised to achieve statutory RoTE >8.5% by 2024:- Deliverable cost and revenue initiatives identified and being implemented, complemented by targeted investments, with returns further enhanced through balance sheet optimisation
Key Financials:
Dan Frumkin, chief executive officer at Metro Bank, said:
“Our financial performance reflects a very challenging year for Metro Bank. External headwinds, internal challenges and actions we took to put the business on a more positive trajectory are reflected in the results. Despite this, Metro Bank’s market-leading service proposition continued to deliver growth in customer accounts, and our balance sheet ended the year in a materially stronger position. We’ve fully evaluated our strategy, and have a clear plan which will return the bank to sustainable growth built around a community banking model. An enhanced focus on costs, improved productivity, and investment in our infrastructure will enable our deposit-led franchise to deliver profitable growth over the medium term. Thanks to the steadfast commitment of colleagues across the bank, I am confident we will successfully execute against these priorities to become the UK’s best community bank.”