Big interview Banking
hief risk officer. Chief operating officer. Chief executive. Many leaders in British banking content themselves with single titles – anything more would presumably make stressful jobs utterly overwhelming. Faisal Hussain, however, is different. In October last year, after nearly three years at Metro Bank, he was appointed both chief information officer and chief transformation officer. Yet if his responsibilities are double those of many peers, it’s striking how relaxed Hussain seems about it all. “In the olden days,” he explains, “change used to be change – and then it used to translate for tech. I think the blend is so overlapping now that change and tech have become one.” In a sense, a daring reframing of traditional c-suite roles feels appropriate coming from a Metro Bank executive. Founded barely a decade ago, it was Britain’s first new high street bank in over 150 years. Since then, Metro Bank has gone on to disrupt the country’s cosy financial consensus in other ways too. Abandoning the slightly provincial atmosphere of traditional branches, Metro Bank ‘stores’ (in the parlance of the company’s American co-founder) are bright and lively, offering such amenities as late opening hours and bank cards that can be printed for customers on the spot. And though there have been bumps in the path – not least a 2019 accounting error that saw share prices drop by 75%, as well as a more recent scare, in October 2023, around fund-raising challenges – the institution
C 8 Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
on change
From its founding in 2010, Metro Bank has done things differently. Eschewing many of the conventions of British fi nance, the institution has embraced such innovations as late opening hours and startup-led accelerator programmes. It feels fi tting, therefore, that this new arrival on the country’s high streets should even have abandoned traditional job titles, with Faisal Hussain embracing both the chief information offi cer role – and that of chief transformation offi cer. Andrea Valentino catches up with Hussain to understand the reasoning behind his dual role, how it helps Metro Bank digitalise at speed, and why sociability and collaboration are hallmarks of his work.
Metro Bank
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
