Metro Bk Hldgs Plc (MTRBF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to Metrobank's Half One 2026 results. As you can tell from the opening slide, you're about to see a very strong performance driven by our strategy. Our ability to win share by staying focused on relationship banking and delivering quality service will come out throughout the presentation. I'll start with a bit of an overview of the financial results, then Marc will walk you through the detail, and then I'll come back and talk about the strategy that drives the future for Metro. And then we're happy to take questions. So let's start. Metro delivered a £61 million underlying profit for the first half of the year, up 34% year-on-year, and the largest in the history of Metro Bank. Rhody increased to 7.5%. Up 270 basis points over a year ago. Cost income ratio continued to drop as revenue growth outpaced cost growth. Exit NIM expanded to 325 basis points, 30 basis points up year on year, and the largest NIM in the history of the bank. We continue to find lots of opportunities to lend. We did a billion pounds in commercial and corporate lending in the first half of the year, and we have a one billion pound credit approved pipeline, the largest in the history of the bank. Historically, we've done about 120 to 130% of the approved pipeline in any half year. So we would expect in the second half of the year for lending to accelerate and for us to do about 1.2 to 1.3 billion Kirsten McLeod, and with long-standing customers of the bank. And as I mentioned, cost-income ratio dropped as revenue over the last two years has grown by 29% and costs have actually decreased by 9% over the similar period. So let's move on to RODI. So the path to an 18% return on tangible equity becomes clearer by the day. The path to 13% in quarter four is broadly driven by the ...