RateSetter acquisition helps Metro Bank boost consumer lending

Metro Bank’s 2020 acquisition of peer-to-peer lender RateSetter has helped boost the bank's revenues through a boom in consumer lending, according to regulatory filings.

The challenger bank bought Ratesetter in the summer of 2020, which was completed without any face-to-face meetings as AltFi revealed, and has retained its brand with loans offered through its platform in MetroBank’s 7 branches as well as on third party lending aggregators.

Consumer lending increased to 7 per cent of the bank’s total loan book in 2021. This was a major increase from just 2 per cent at the end of 2020. Consumer originations continue to average more than £50m per month compared to less than £2m per month a year earlier.

Despite the boost to revenues, which were 17 per cent, losses at the bank increased to £245m in 2021 although its CEO Daniel Frumkin a turnaround plan was working.

"Two years into the turnaround, our strategy is delivering meaningful results as we move towards profitability. In a changing macro-economic environment, we have accelerated the shift of our balance sheet, with improved yields and lower cost of deposits,” he said.

There is still more to do, but our focus on delivering higher margins through unsecured and specialist mortgage lending, as well as tight cost control, is enabling transformational change,” he added.

Founded in 2010 by Rhydian Lewis and Peter Behrens,RateSetter was one of the original P2P platforms. It retained its purely retail funding model up until being bought by Metro.