Finance
British lender Metro Bank triples half-year profit on lending pivot, cost cuts
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on August 6, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on August 6, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Metro Bank's profit surged threefold in H1 2025 due to a strategic shift to corporate lending and effective cost management.
(Reuters) -Britain's Metro Bank posted a more than threefold rise in underlying pre-tax profit for the first half of 2025 compared to the second half of 2024, driven by the lender's cost control measures and renewed focus on corporate and commercial lending.
The bank, launched in 2010 as a challenger to Britain's incumbent lenders, has faced a series of setbacks in recent years, including misclassification of loans and the abrupt exit of its founder Vernon Hill in 2019.
Although these resulted in mounting losses and regulatory fines, the lender returned to profitability in the second half of last year after shifting its focus to higher-yielding specialist mortgages and commercial lending.
For the six months ended June 30, Metro Bank reported an underlying pre-tax profit of 45.1 million pounds ($60 million), more than tripling the 12.8 million pounds posted in the previous six-month period.
($1 = 0.7517 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)
Pre-tax profit is the income a company earns before taxes are deducted. It reflects the company's profitability from its operations and is an important measure for assessing financial performance.
Cost control measures are strategies implemented by businesses to manage and reduce expenses. This can include budgeting, monitoring spending, and optimizing operational efficiency.
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