Metro Bank returns from the brink but tough road lies ahead

Metro is shifting out of run-of-the mill lending, and aiming for a new mix: with 70% of its loans aimed at small and medium-size businesses, and 30% at specialist mortgages involved in shared ownership, buy-to-let, and high net worth individuals paid in bonuses rather than salaries. Photograph: Pavlo Gonchar/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Metro Bank bosses are breathing a sigh of relief. Less than a year after the bank was forced into the arms of a Colombian billionaire as part of a £925m rescue deal, it is coming back from the brink.

A forecast by the bank last week that it would return to profitability by the end of the year sent shares up more than 35% to 55p, marking their strongest weekly gain since the bank’s IPO in 2016.