Metro Bank – are you still waiting?

Metro Bank and their addition to the panel of Bounce Back Loan lenders with the British Business Bank has been an ongoing saga!

• When will they be added?
• Why haven’t they been added?
• Would they EVER be added?

It’s been a recurring question, and at the end of last week we were able to give you an update.

Since then though, things have moved on another step!

Metro Bank appeared on the British Business Bank’s page of approved lenders at the weekend, and a new page was added to the Metro Bank website too.

It seems that Metro Bank were actually approved to join the panel on the 13th May, but have spent the last two and a half weeks getting their systems in place. Testing of the system is now underway.

Given that there is likely to be very high demand for loans, there will be a staggered start, so not everyone will be able to apply straight away.

This would appear sensible, given the problems other banks (Barclays?) have experienced, but is likely to be frustrating for those customers who’ve been very patient so far.

We’re aware of a large number of Metro Bank customers who’ve applied to open accounts with Starling or Tide to gain access to their loan offer instead. They needed to get funds into their accounts and couldn’t wait any longer.

Our advice now, if you’re still a Metro Bank customer and waiting on their launch, is to keep a very close eye on this web page, and get your application in as quickly as possible once it updates. In the meantime you can gather together the information they’re warning you that you’ll need to provide as part of your application.

If you are able to get your application in fairly quickly, do let us know how the process goes; we’d love to be able to pass the news out to everyone else that’s waiting.

As ever, if you’d like to chat through any of the above or any other concerns or questions around how Coronavirus is affecting your business, please get in touch.