Metro Bank sued over software used by ‘magic money machine’

A US software company has kicked off a High Court battle against Metro Bank over claims the lender leaked trade secrets for its “magic money machines”.

Philadelphia-based Arkeyo created software more than a decade ago for Metro’s coin-counting machines, which are aimed at children to add up small change and remain in all of the bank’s branches.

However, Arkeyo is now suing Metro for damages over claims the bank misappropriated its intellectual property by leaking its software to a rival company and infringing its copyright, court documents filed in the US show.

Arkeyo launched a civil case in the US in 2017 seeking damages and has attempted to serve the US proceedings on Metro Bank in a UK court ever since. The software company alleges that, in 2016, Metro met with personnel from rival software companies Saggezza and Cummins to “discuss how to duplicate Arkeyo’s software to enable Metro to replace Arkeyo with Saggezza… as Metro’s software vendor”.

Arkeyo claims that Saggezza asked Metro to provide it with a touchscreen computer, which was loaded with Arkeyo’s software.

The court filings allege that in March 2016, Metro did provide Saggezza with the touchscreen computer containing Arkeyo’s software.

Sagezza has denied wrongdoing and attempted to get a case against it thrown out last year, but a Chicago judge ruled that Arkeyo could proceed with the copyright infringement claim.

Arkeyo has hired City law firm Penningtons Manches Cooper to represent it in its UK action against Metro.

Metro Bank and Arkeyo both declined to comment.

However, the lender previously said: “Metro Bank believes Arkeyo’s claims are without merit. Metro Bank is vigorously defending the claims and intends to challenge jurisdiction, venue, service and avail of other procedural grounds for dismissal of the suit.”

The challenger bank has been trying to revive its fortunes after a major accounting scandal in 2019 which led to a collapse in its share price and the departure of its founder and former chief executive.

At the end of last year, a US private equity giant announced a possible takeover offer for Metro, sending its shares soaring by a third. However, Carlyle Group quickly ended talks over a potential offer.