The sale of the Portfolio is in line with Metro Bank’s strategy to reposition its balance sheet and enhance risk-adjusted returns on capital. It also creates additional lending capacity to enable Metro Bank to continue its asset rotation towards higher yielding assets in more niche and underserved markets including in commercial, corporate, SME lending and specialist mortgages.

The cross-practice Hogan Lovells team was led by London M&A partner John Allison and Financial Services partner James Black supported by client relationship partner Dan Simons, Charles Jemmett (M&A, counsel), Blaise Salle (M&A, associate), Julie Patient (Financial Services, counsel), Dan Park (Financial Services, associate), partner Angus Coulter (Competition), Juliette Parkinson (Competition, associate), partner Stefan Martin (Employment), Anvita Sharma (Employment, counsel), Alex Rutherford (Privacy and Cyber Security, senior associate) and Tom Eyre-Brook (Tax, counsel).

The Metro Bank legal team was led by General Counsel, Stephanie Wallace and Senior Legal Counsel, Oliver Storey.