Metro Bank triples lending to business Metro Bank, one of the newest entrants to retail banking, more than tripled its lending to businesses last year. The bank, which opened the doors to its first branch in 2010, lent £97.5m to businesses in 2012 compared to £32.3m the previous year, according to annual accounts filed at Companies House. The accounts also show it lent more than £62m in mortgages in 2012, up from just £7m in 2011. While the sums are very small compared to larger banks, they are rare bright spots in the UK credit landscape. Recent figures showed banks had pulled back on lending to British businesses and households in the three months to March. Metro Bank's business lending focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises. However in common with other new players in business lending, such as Aldermore, the high levels of year-on-year growth reflect the fact that they are growing from a virtually non-existent base. Metro Bank was launched amid much fanfare in July 2010 with the aim of providing an alternative to the UK's biggest lenders. However its total pre-tax losses have risen to more than £100m in the three years since its launch, largely due to the cost of rapidly expanding its branch network. The bank made a pre-tax loss of £45.7m last year, and a further £8.8m loss for the first three months of 2013. The bank made a pre-tax loss of £33.1m in 2011. The bank said the losses reflected the investment required to fit out new stores and build accompanying infrastructure and operating systems. It will open its nineteenth branch this month and wants numbers to reach 200 by 2020, but the cost of opening each outlet averages more than £2m. However its extended opening hours and the promise of better service have proved popular with customers, with account numbers almost tripling to 136,000 last year. Customer deposits grew 279 per cent to £576m in 2012. Metro Bank's expansion is focused on London and the southeast and the bank wants to list on the London stockmarket as early as 2014.