Troubled bank axes 1000 jobs
METRO WILL ALSO END 7-DAY OPENING
METRO Bank is to axe 1000 jobs – more than a fifth of its workforce – after revealing another £30million of cost cutting.
The staff cull, which started late last year and will end by mid-April, is about 200 more than first expected. The high street lender, which was rescued late last year, also confirmed an end to seven-day branch opening and shorter hours.
Branches – or “stores” as Metro calls them – will shut Sundays from March 29. Forty-four of its 76 outlets will only open 9 to 5 Monday to Friday. Metro boss Daniel Frumkin said: “These efforts will ensure the bank is right-sized for the future, with a strong focus on both digital and great customer service.” Metro championed branches when it launched as a challenger bank in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis. It was the first High Street bank to open in the UK in more than 100 years. But it has suffered from an accounting scandal in 2019, the impact of the pandemic and concerns about its finances. Its rescue last year saw Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal take a controlling stake. Metro announced another £30million of annual cost reductions, on top of the £50million already in place. But it insists it remains “committed to stores” including out-of-town sites with focus on small business customers. Annual results yesterday showed losses down from £50.6million to £16.9million last year. On a statutory basis, the group revealed it returned to profit for the first time since 2018, with pre-tax gains of £30.5million.