Metro Bank was the wrong model for its place and time

This column has long been a fan of the concept of ‘challenger banks’ offering alternatives for personal and small business customers who were mistreated or underserved by the big banks before and after the 2008 crash. Most challengers were internet-based, but Metro Bank — founded in 2010 by US entrepreneur Vernon Hill, whose early career was spent developing sites for McDonald’s — was different. Its model was predicated on an expensive chain of bricks-and–mortar branches (referred to as ‘stores’, open seven days a week, and with 200 planned by 2020) at a time when the likes of NatWest and HSBC were withdrawing from the high street as fast as they could.

All seemed dandy for a while, even as the rate of store openings slowed: there are currently 68. Vernon Hill and his wife Shirley — whose design firm was paid millions for creating the look of the stores — were a bit brash for British tastes but they exuded the optimism our moribund town centres needed.