Private equity eyes up high-street banks

Carlyle’s bid for Metro may be just an appetiser before the hearty main course, says Matthew Lynn

Branch of Metro Bank
Metro brought some needed pizzaz to the dull world of banks
(Image credit: © Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Anyone walking down the high street over the last few years can hardly fail to have noticed Metro. The upstart brought some much needed pizzaz to the dull world of banks, redesigning its branches to look fresh, modern and vibrant instead of something that might have looked a little dowdy in 1955.

That was nice in its own way, but it hasn’t proved a great business model. Metro only has 1.7 million account holders. Hardly anyone ever goes into a branch any more, so it doesn’t make much difference whether the layout is nice or not. And it is very, very hard to persuade people to switch their accounts. Metro’s shares remain a long way below the 400p they were priced at when the firm listed in 2016.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.