Irritating your regulator is never a good idea, yet this is what Metro Bank did in spadeloads last month when it falsely claimed responsibility for discovering errors in the way it had categorised some of its loans, leading to a sharp reduction in its capital strength and in its share price. It was forced to change its story after it emerged that the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority had, in fact, been closely involved. The episode has raised questions about Metro’s corporate governance, about its strategy of rampant growth and whether it will need (or, indeed, be able) to turn to its shareholders for another multimillion-pound cash injection.
Metro Bank was founded in 2010 by Vernon Hill, an American entrepreneur with a background in