Metro Bank today announces that Mr Hill, Founder of Metro Bank, has decided to step down from the Board and his role as Chairman by 31 December 2019. As communicated at the Bank's H1 2019 results, Mr Hill believes that the Bank has now reached a size and scale where it is appropriate to appoint an independent Chairperson.
The Board's search for a new Chairperson is progressing well. However, if this is not completed by the end of the year, the Bank will appoint an existing independent non-executive director as interim Chairperson.
Commenting, Sir Michael Snyder, Senior Independent Director at Metro Bank said: "Vernon is the inspiration behind Metro Bank, the first high street bank to open in the UK in over 100 years. 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."