Metro Bank has announced plans to create 500 new jobs as it continues to expand its interests beyond London and the South East. The loss-making challenger bank, which first hit high streets a little over six years ago as major lenders juggled the damaging fallout from the financial crisis, said the new roles included customer-facing and head office positions. It is also seeking more staff for its online operations and looming branch openings - with 12 in the immediate pipeline. The lender currently has a branch network of 48 across London and southern England. While it remains a small player, it has attracted 900,000 customer accounts. Many of those people are likely to have been drawn in by its proposition of seven-day-a-week store opening - maybe even a pooch-friendly policy that includes free water and dog biscuits. Its ambition, at least, is in stark contrast to the closure of branches and dramatic shift towards online banking followed by bigger, and its biggest, rivals in the domestic market as they look to save costs and invest more digitally. It was announced only on Wednesday that Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks were shutting more than a third of branches with the loss of 400 jobs. While Airdrie Savings Bank, the UK's last remaining independent savings bank, said it was to close after 182 years with 70 jobs going. Both decisions were partly linked to the growth in mobile and internet banking but there is a wider issue for the sector in that retail banking profitability has been damaged by years of rock bottom interest rates - designed to help prop up the economy. Lenders have moved to bolster earnings through higher volumes - with credit provision at an 11-year high. :: Carney: Consumer-led growth may fizzle out Metro Bank, which listed on the London Stock Exchange almost a year ago with shares offered at a reduced price because of wider market turmoil, has seen its stock climb 47% in value since. It has outlined ambitious plans to achieve 110 branches by 2020 - with its expansion dragging on profitability to leave it loss-making on an annual basis since its launch. It made its first pre-tax trading profit, of £0.6m, in the third quarter of 2016.
Metro Bank is set to create 500 new jobs as it extends operations beyond London as part of its plan to open 110 branches by 2020. Metro Bank, launched in 2010 and the first UK bank to be created in more than 150 years, currently has 48 offices in the South East and 900,000 customers. The company's share price has risen 47% since floating on the Stock Exchange almost a year ago, and it made its first pre-tax trading profit, £600,000, in Q3 2016.