Metro Bank is the latest challenger bank to eye London float
The battle between the "big four" high street lenders and the challengers banks just ratcheted up a notch.
New kid on the block Metro Bank is eyeing a £1bn initial public offering on the London stockmarket next year, according to the Telegraph. This comes just five years after it emerged to shake-up Britain's banking landscape.
Metro – along with similar firms such as Aldermore and Virgin Money – are battling to take away market share from the so-called "big four" high street banks Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and RBS. They're trying to entice customers away with better deals on current accounts, credit cards and other financial products.
Metro, which has 31 sites across London and the South East, cut losses to £8.9m in the last quarter of 2014, down from £9.4m in the previous three-month period.
The bank hopes to break even later this year ahead of its planned stock market debut.
It the plan goes ahead it'll join fellow challenger banks Shawbrook, Aldermore, and Virgin Money which all floated within the last year.