Metro Bank lists on LSE

Metro Bank, the first new high street bank in the UK for 100 years, has listed on the LSE with a market capitalisation of £1.6bn similar to that of CYBG which listed in the previous month.

Craig Donaldson, CEO, who studied at the University of Bradford, remarked that the first branch opened less than six years ago in London's Holborn.

Vernon Hill is the American business behind Metro Bank and author of "Fans not Customers".

He is often quoted in his views on regarding banks as being in the retail business, rather than the banking business, and is a critic of "shadow banking systems" (in other words, banks or financial intermediaries that operate outside of banking regulation).

Will Bank of Burger King entrepreneur buy Prudential's Old Online Bank

Citi is reported to be looking to sell Egg, the UK online bank, as part of a wider disposal of assets, to simplify the "Frankenbank", that has apparently become too complex to manage.

Egg, created by Prudential, was bought by Citi in 2007 and potential buyers include BSCH and Metro Bank, the first new high-street bank to open in Britain for more than a century.

Metro Bank is backed by Vernon Hill, who also owns several Burger King franchises. 

He has a BS with concentration in finance from Wharton.

Citi has already dispensed with Phibro, a commodity trading unit acquired for net asset value, now owned by Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) and HQ'ed in Westport, Connecticut. They have a European office in Duke Street, London. (half-way house between Piccadilly Circus and Green Park). The business was sold due to concern's over its top executive's pay packet ($100m bonus in one year, nine-figure bonus) rather than business concerns.

In the first half of the year, Citi paid $75m to settle SEC charges over failing to disclose the extent of its subprime exposure (more than $40bn). This exposure came from the super-senior tranches of CDOs backed by subprime mortgages and related instruments called "liquidity puts". The puts allowed Citi customers to sell debt securities back to Citi at face value if credit markets froze; clearly Citi was betting that this would never happen.