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Metro Banks rolls out unsecured personal loans

Metro Bank is rolling out an unsecured personal loan product across its branch network.

Applicants can borrow between £1,000 and £25,000 between one and five years at a rate of 4.9 per cent. Customers must be 21 or over and resident in the UK for a minimum of three years.

The challenger bank is offering this product across its 77 UK branches after already selling £120m of these loans online.

The loans are being administered by RateSetter, the peer-to-peer lender bought by Metro for up to £12m last August.

Metro Bank managing director, distribution Ian Walters says: “We are rapidly growing our unsecured personal lending offering in line with our strategic plan, initially via digital channels and now via our store network.”

The lender says its polling tells it that 51 per cent of people, and 62 per cent of over 55s “like to speak to someone face-to-face about their finances”.

RateSetter chief executive Rhydian Lewis adds: “Pairing Metro Bank’s deposit base with RateSetter’s lending capability was always exciting and in the space of just a few months the combination is already delivering results.

“Our aim is to offer a first-class borrowing experience for customers and I am delighted that we are now doing so through the stores, as well as online.”

The move follows the bank’s entry into the near prime mortgage market in March.

At the time Metro Bank director of mortgage distribution Charles Morley said the new product is part of the lender’s ambition to become the UK’s “number one specialist bank.”

The bank became the first high-street lender to offer near prime mortgages and said it planned to announce entry into further specialist areas in the coming weeks and months.

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