Metro Bank admits accounting error was found by Bank of England, sending shares to record lows
Metro Bank shares have slid to record lows after the company admitted an accounting error it reported last week was actually uncovered by the Bank of England.
Chief executive Craig Donaldson had insisted the mistakes, in the way it classified loans, were found by the bank’s own staff through an internal review.
Read more: Metro Bank shares plummet as lender misses profit expectations
But reports emerged last night that the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) first uncovered the blunder.
Metro Bank confirmed that PRA flagged up “potential inconsistencies” in its loanbook before the company conducted a review.
The dog-loving bank’s admission sent shares down a further 12 per cent to 1,070p as investors lost even more confidence in the company.
Its shares have now lost more than 50 per cent of their value since Metro Bank reported the gaffe on 23 January.
The bank warned the errors, in the way it had calculated the weight of some commercial loans and buy-to-let loans to major landlords, would take a chunk out of its risk-weighted assets.
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In a statement today, the company said: “Ongoing supervision by the PRA helped to identify potential inconsistencies in certain loans which were raised with the bank.
“Metro Bank then undertook a comprehensive review, in order to establish the full picture before our year end, which identified the need to make adjustments in our risk-weighting of some commercial and specialist buy-to-let loans.”