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With its garish red and blue exterior and imposing glass façade, there is almost no chance of missing the newest player on Birmingham's high street.

But this isn't a high-end boutique or hip fashion chain tapping into the Instagram generation.

It's a bank. Metro Bank to be precise, sitting right in the middle of one of the busiest retail districts outside of central London.

Perched at the corner of New Street and High Street and opposite the Metro has stuck its flag firmly into Birmingham's city centre sand and welcomed its residents and SMEs with open arms.

Complete with its own in-house 'university' for staff training, this is the group's 68th branch - or 'store' as they would prefer we called it - and the first outside its heartland of London and the southern regions.

In a city which has waved goodbye to dozens of bank branches in recent years, why does this upstart launched by US entrepreneur Vernon Hill in 2010 think it can buck the trend and breathe new life into what many see as a dying breed?

Ian Walters, managing director of retail and business banking, took time away from a manic launch event in Birmingham to speak to BusinessLive.

"In the West Midlands, somewhere in the region of 237 branches have closed over the last five years and 41 in Birmingham alone," he said.