BoE welcomes Metro Bank fundraise

The raise follows an accounting error in January which left the bank without the capital it needed to grow.

BoE welcomes Metro Bank fundraise

Metro Bank's raising of £375m from a fundraising call has been welcomed by the Bank of England.

The bank exceeded its £350m target by £25m as it asked investors to pay £5 a share to help strengthen its balance sheet.

A statement from the Bank of England read: “The Prudential Regulation Authority welcomes the steps taken today by Metro Bank.

"Metro Bank is profitable and continues to have adequate capital and liquidity to serve its current customer base. It has raised additional capital in order to fund future growth.”

The price was higher than some had predicted as shares in Metro Bank have fallen about 75% this year, taking almost £1.5bn off its value.

The fall was on the back of problems brought about by the disclosure of a misreporting of Metro's financial risk weightings, with respect to how its commercial property, and buy-to-let loans were classified.

In addition to the fund raise, Metro has said it has identified a further £70m-£75m in operational savings up to 2022 and intends to target capital expenditure savings of up to £45m by 2022.

The bank was founded in 2010, becoming Britain's first new high street bank for more than a century.