Luke Johnson steps down from Metro Bank board
Serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson has resigned his position as a non-executive of Metro Bank.
Johnson told Sky News that the time commitments now required for the role were becoming too great for him to maintain his position at Britain's first new high street bank for over 100 years. He joined Metro Bank in 2011.
Johnson made his name as chairman of Pizza Express in the early 1990s, helping to grow the business from 12 restaurants to more than 250. Metro Bank lost £9.4m in the third quarter, better than the £11.4m loss seen the same time last year.
The "challenger" bank, which has been nominated for a CityAM award this year, saw deposits skyrocket by 118 per cent on the year to £2.34bn. Furthermore, its loan book rose by 146 per cent to £1.39bn.
Craig Donaldson, Metro’s chief executive, said:
We’re extremely proud of another quarter of strong growth in lending, deposits and customer numbers. As we enter the final quarter of 2014, we thank our personal and business customers for their ongoing support, and we look forward to bringing our customer focused proposition to more communities across London and the south-east.