19 January 2014 – The Times 

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Metro, the upstart high street lender, has raised nearly £400m of fresh funding ahead of a London float in 2016. The cash is thought to have come from existing investors, which include the fund manager Fidelity, the hedge fund Moore Capital and the billionaire Reuben brothers. The £388m fundraising values the four-year-old bank at £770m.

The founder Vernon Hill, a US financial services veteran, said Metro would use the cash to speed up its assault on the high street banks. The 25th branch opened in Milton Keynes last week. It aims to have 35 by the year-end and will “step up” expansion in 2015, Hill said. The target is £25bn of deposits by 2020. “Our growth rates have far exceeded our expectations. Americans love to buy growth companies, and there aren’t many of those in financial services in Europe right now,” said Hill, whose stake will be reduced from 13% to 9% after the fundraising.