Metro Bank CFO quits as full year results loom
The chief financial officer for Metro Bank has quit with the company’s preliminary financial results expected as soon as next week.
David Arden is stepping down after four years at Metro having previously served as chief financial officer for Sainsbury’s Bank and Shop Direct, according to LinkedIn. Metro Bank said that despite the shakeup to leadership preliminary financial results will still be published on 23 February 2022 and are expected to be “in line with management expectations.”
It comes at the end of a year which has seen Metro Bank buffeted by set backs. In November, shares crashed by almost a fifth in one day after equity giant Carlyle walked away from talks to buy the British high street lender. A month later, The Bank of England imposed a £5.4m fine on Metro over reporting and governance failures between 2016 and 2019.
The Bank has also been struggling financially, making a statutory loss before tax of £138.9m in the six months to 30 June 2021 – almost double losses of £71m seen in the previous six months. At the time, Metro said its turnaround plan was still on track despite the lacklustre results.
David Arden, will step down from the board with immediate effect and leave the business on 1st April 2022. Deputy chief financial officer, Marc Jenkins, will assume responsibility for the Finance function from 15 February 2022 while the bank recruits for Arden’s full time replacement.
“On behalf of the Board I would like to thank David for the important work that he has done to strengthen Metro Bank’s financial controls over the past two years. He has played an instrumental role in helping to deliver the bank’s strategic priorities and turnaround plan and leaves with our best wishes for the future,” commented chief executive Daniel Frumkin.