METRO BANK SEEKS BIDS WITHIN WEEKS FOR £3BN MORTGAGE BOOK – Bank wants bidders to submit offers at the beginning of next month

Metro Bank has set a quickfire timetable for rivals to snap up a substantial chunk of its mortgage book.

Reports understand Metro Bank wants bidders to submit offers at the beginning of next month, with Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, and NatWest Group all having an indicated interest.

News of the timetable comes days after the high street bank said it had secured a £925m refinancing package, which involves the Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal becoming its majority shareholder.

Metro Bank had become the subject of questions about its survival after it was revealed this month that it had drafted in City advisers to raise hundreds of millions of pounds of new capital.

In total, it is raising about £150m of new equity and £175m of new debt, while it is also refinancing £600m of existing borrowings.

Analysts have questioned whether the mortgage book sale will have implications from a fair value accounting perspective, but Daniel Frumkin, Metro Bank’s chief executive, suggested last week that a sale would be wrapped up before the end of the year.

Metro Bank, which has about 2.7 million customers, became the first new lender to open on Britain’s high streets in over 100 years when it launched in 2010.