INVESTORS will be looking for more clues on Metro Bank's turnaround strategy this week as the lender prepares to draw a line under a year that saw it rescued from the brink of collapse.

The lender's full-year results, due on Wednesday, are expected to show pressure on its net interest margin - the difference between what a bank charges on loans and pays to savers - amid intense competition for mortgages and deposits as the Bank of England holds interest rates.

The bank also expects to take a one-off restructuring charge of between £10m and £15m in 2023.

In the first half of last year, Metro Bank swung to its first profit before tax in four years. Its net interest margin climbed 0.41 percentage points to 2.14 per cent as it reaped the benefits of interest rate hikes.

However, last September the Bank of England denied Metro Bank's request to use its own models to assess risks on its mortgages and assets, forcing it to make urgent moves to bolster its balance sheet, including exploring a sale of a £3bn mortgage portfolio.

Jaime Gilinski Bacal, a Colombian billionaire with a reputation for turning around struggling banks and selling them for profit, eventually swooped in.

His firm, Spaldy Investments, took a controlling stake of around 53 per cent in Metro Bank after it led a £925m refinancing package that was overwhelmingly backed by shareholders last

November. Metro Bank subsequently shelved plans to sell its mortgage book.

Bacal later appointed himself to Metro Bank's board in January.

The bank is now planning to deliver up to £50m in cost savings. It announced last November that it would cut jobs by 20 per cent, around 800 employees, by the end of March, and look at reducing its branch opening hours.

(c) 2024 City A.M., source Newspaper