Challenger bank responds to rising demand for traditional private banking services.
Metro Bank is delighted to announce the appointment of Julie Barnsley to Head of Metro Bank Private Banking, where she will be responsible for overseeing services for high net worth clients.
The appointment is in direct response to a boom in demand for Metro Bank Private Banking, which now accounts for around a fifth of the bank’s operations.
Metro Bank Private Banking focuses solely on the provision of exceptional personal banking services, rather than providing investment advice or selling investments. Clients benefit from having their own private banking director across specialist sectors including: sports and entertainment; entrepreneurs; boards and partners; and commercial private clients.
Julie will retain her responsibilities as Metro Bank Commercial Banking Director, where she has overseen significant growth in the commercial deposit book and specialist sector banking. She will coordinate both the Private Clients and Private Commercial Clients teams led by Jon Collins and Chris Burge.
On her recent appointment, Julie commented: “I’m delighted to be taking the helm of Metro Bank Private Banking at such an exciting time for the bank as a whole. Since first embarking on my banking career, it’s always been the traditional service-led aspects of good old fashioned relationship banking that has appealed to me most and that ethos sits at the very heart of Metro Bank. I’m proud of our offering and look forward to building on its success.”
Metro Bank CEO, Craig Donaldson commented: “Julie has been with us since the very beginning of the Metro Bank journey and has made an outstanding contribution to growing and developing our Commercial Banking offering. I am delighted to appoint her to Head of Metro Bank Private Banking, where I am confident she will make a significant impact in expanding and growing our offering.”
Julie joined Metro Bank, the UK’s first new high street bank in more than 100 years, shortly after it first opened in 2010. Prior to this, Julie held a number of senior positions at Barclays where she was based for five years, and Bank of Scotland, where she worked for more than 17 years.
This appointment is the latest in a string of exciting moves and new appointments within Metro Bank, as it continues to flex its muscle across London and the South East. Earlier this month the bank added two new members to its newly created Advisory Board with the appointment of Westminster City Councillor, Rachael Robathan and Mary Ricks, President and CEO of real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson. In the same month, two new colleagues joined Metro Bank’s Executive Team with the appointment of Ian Walters as Managing Director of Business and Commercial and Iain Kirkpatrick as Managing Director of Regional Banking.