Metro Bank Opens in U.K. Using Temenos Core Banking Software

Suite of banking products implemented in 9 months.

Metro Bank, the first full service bank to enter the U.K. retail banking market in over a century, opened its first branch in London today, offering free dog treats and running its operations on Temenos' T24.

The startup bank is a bit unusual. Its motto is, "Love Your Bank At Last." Its founder, Vernon W. Hill, is an American banker who founded Commerce Bank and prior to that, owned a chain of Burger Kings. He is bringing some of the services Commerce is known for, such as machines that convert coins to dollars for free, to the new U.K. bank.

Metro Bank "pledges to deliver the ultimate customer experience through exceptional service delivery," according to a press release from Temenos. Branches will be open 361 days of the year and will be backed up by a 24/7 London based call center, online banking and quick account opening services with the promise to issue a debit and credit card in 15 minutes.

“Today marks the start of a British banking revolution," said Hill in the press release. "T24 gives us a competitive advantage by delivering functionality we need to support our UK business model on a single software platform, which keeps costs low and delivers a single customer view that allows us to deliver superior service to our clients. We want to build fans not customers."

The bank deployed the Temenos T24 Model Bank platform within nine months. Temenos, in partnership with NIU, is supplying T24 as an externally hosted and managed service, minimizing initial capital investment.