Metro Bank loses £2bn

Metro Bank said it would seek a new chairman to replace its co-founder Vernon Hill as it revealed that it customers had pulled £2bn in the first half after a misreporting scandal.

Mr Hill, a brash American who was in the year above Donald Trump at Wharton Business School in the US, said Metro Bank’s recent difficulties had been “blown out of proportion. We have had eight-and-a-half years where nothing went wrong, which is a miracle. It’s very hard to build a major bank from scratch without some bumps.”

Metro Bank said that total deposits had fallen to £13.7bn by the end of June compared with £15.7bn at the start of the year, which Craig Donaldson, CEO attributed to a “ period of speculation” following the scandal. “ But I think we are back on track, We did lose £2bn  but to get £700m back shows that the momentum is back”.