Vernon Hill to step down as Metro Bank chairman

Metro Bank announced on Wednesday that its founder Vernon Hill has decided to step down from the board and his role as chairman by 31 December.

The London-listed challenger bank had communicated in its first half results that Hill believed it had now reached a size and scale where it was appropriate to appoint an independent chair.

Its board said the search for a new chair was progressing “well”.

However, if it was not completed by the end of the year, the bank would appoint an existing independent non-executive director as interim chair.

“Vernon is the inspiration behind Metro Bank, the first high street bank to open in the UK in over 100 years,” said the board’s senior independent director Sir Michael Snyder.

“It is thanks to his vision and leadership that we have grown to 70 stores around the country, serving over 1.8m customer accounts and we've twice been ranked as the number one bank for overall quality of service for personal banking.

“The board shares Vernon's view that Metro Bank has now reached a point where an independent chairperson is appropriate to oversee the next stage of our journey.”