Metro Bank is opening its first Midlands branch this week in Birmingham city centre.
The new branch will launch in High Street on August 9, be open seven days a week, 362 days per year and will also house an in-house ‘university' for training staff.
Plans for the new bank, which have created 25 new jobs, were first unveiled in 2017 when it lodged an application with the city council to convert retail units at the corner with New Street then occupied by Vodafone, Card Factory and Foot Asylum.
This is the first of four openings by the challenger bank scheduled to take place in the West Midlands during 2019 with further branches forthcoming in Solihull, Merry Hill in Dudley and Wolverhampton.
Metro was founded in London in 2010 and was the first high street bank to launch in the 海角视频 in more than 150 years at the time.
Its founder is American Vernon Hill, a former fast-food restaurant franchisee who launched a similar challenger bank called Commerce Bancorp, in New Jersey, in the 1970s.
It was later bought out and the brand dissolved.
Birmingham Commercial Property News
Metro Bank offers retail and commercial banking services, but has no investment arm, and its trading hours typically mirror those of retailers in a bid to fit around customers' lifestyles better, even referring to its branches as ‘stores' on its website.
Most Read
It currently has 67 locations across London and the South and appears to swimming against a trend within the sector of closing bricks and mortar branches rather than opening them.
In recent years, Birmingham has seen a string of banks closing branches including Lloyds, HSBC, Halifax, NatWest and Santander.
Metro said that analysis by consumer magazine Which? claimed the West Midlands had waved goodbye to more than 230 bank branches since 2015.
The new Birmingham outlet will be officially opened by Birmingham City Council leader Cllr Ian Ward and Metro director Rav Bagri and branch's manager Beth Freeman on Friday morning.
Metro Bank's chief executive Craig Donaldson said: "I'm delighted we are opening a store in Birmingham, introducing real choice into how people bank.
"Our new seven-day-a-week store will act as a central hub for the local community, hosting regular networking events for businesses, as well as charity and fun-family events for residents throughout the year."
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said: "We are always thrilled to welcome innovative businesses to the West Midlands and Metro Bank sits firmly in that category.
"The opening of Metro Bank also shows how there is still life in our high streets, with new stores and services seeing profitable futures in our region."