Metro Bank continues to demonstrate its appetite to lend with the announcement of two multi-million pound financing deals with specialist housing associations.
The newest high street lender has provided a new £10 million funding line to the Agudas Israel Housing Association and £4 million to the Apna Ghar Housing Association, both repaying over a period of 25 years.
Social housing continues to be an important growth sector for Metro Bank. The bank, which was founded in July 2010 as the UK’s first new High Street Bank in over 100 years, recently brought on board Craig Wilson, an experienced social housing lender, to head up the social housing finance team. The bank offers 25 year committed loan facilities to housing associations across London and the South East, with areas including Northampton, Cambridge and Banbury, all the way down to Newbury and Southampton.
Craig Wilson, Commercial Banking Director, Metro Bank said: “As a community bank, we’re committed to working in and lending to the communities in which we operate. Social housing is an important sector for us and one we’re committed to growing our lending in. We’re delighted to have been able to offer long term finance solutions to both of these important specialist housing associations, and look forward to continuing to develop long term relationships.”
Reg Prole, Finance Director, Agudas Israel Housing Association, said: “Thanks to the long term finance provided by our new friends at the Metro Bank, we are now able to implement the next phase of our development plan.”
Jai Dosanjh, Chief Executive, Apna Ghar Housing Association said: “We are delighted to have secured the funding from Metro Bank, which will enable Apna Ghar to develop our housing stock and ultimately benefit lots of local people in housing need. In these challenging times of austerity when banks are lending less and many other social housing providers are cutting back their development programmes, we are thrilled that Metro Bank shares our confidence for the future. In fact we will be soon seeking a further loan facility of up to £4million to grow our stock even further and develop our specialist housing services for more tenants with disabilities. This is a very exciting time for everyone at Apna Ghar.
Metro Bank is focused on providing exceptional service to all its customers. The bank is based in London and the South East and in just under three years has grown to 19 stores in the Greater London area, most recently successfully launching in Ealing. Since its launch in 2010 it’s gone from strength to strength. In 2012 deposits grew by 279%; lending increased by 300%, and customer accounts grew by 183%. The bank is also extremely well capitalised, with a Tier 1 capital ratio of 55% to the end of 2012.