By Ben Lucas
The Bank of England has reportedly been canvassing some of the UK’s most high profile banks to gauge their interest in purchasing Metro Bank.
The Bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), approached Natwest, Lloyds Banking Group and Santander UK this weekend to see if they had any interest in the lender, according to reports.
All three lenders are said to be interested in buying parts of Metro Bank, the Financial Times reported.
JP Morgan Chase and HSBC were also contacted by regulators from the PRA, but on Saturday night they both decided not to pursue a deal, the paper reported.
Specialist business lender Shawbrook is considering a potential new bid for the London-listed lender after several failed approaches earlier in the year, Reuters reported late last night.
The PRA is keen that any bids would be for the whole bank rather than part of the business, the Financial Times reported.
Consultancy firm EY is running the bidding process for Metro Bank, according to the paper.
The news comes after Metro Bank’s share price plummeted over 25 per cent last Thursday after reports emerged that it had hired investment bankers to explore ways to raise some £600m to help bolster its balance sheet.
Metro Bank, which was founded in 2010, said at the time it was also exploring other options, such as the sale of billions of pounds of mortgage assets or a debt-for-equity swap.
However, its share price rebounded on Friday on reports that it was sitting on a £600m offer from bondholders that could cover its funding pressures.
The Bank of England, Lloyds, HSBC, Santander and JP Morgan declined to comment.
Shawbrook, EY, Metro Bank and Natwest were approached for comment.
