Metro Bank sells £584m unsecured personal loan book to unnamed buyer

(Sharecast News) - Metro Bank on Wednesday said it had struck a deal to sell a portfolio of around £584m performing unsecured personal loans to an unnamed buyer.

The transaction is expected to result in a gain of about £11m, the bank said, adding that it would result in an improvement in the common equity tier 1 ratio of around 81 basis points and total capital plus minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities ratio of around 129bps to 23.5% from 22.2%.

"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. The transaction is capital accretive and creates additional lending capacity to enable Metro Bank to continue its asset rotation towards higher yielding commercial, corporate, SME lending and specialist mortgages," Metro said.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com