UK-based lender Metro Bank has partnered with Covecta, an AI-driven platform tailored for the financial services sector.
The collaboration will see Covecta’s AI solution implemented across Metro Bank’s corporate and commercial credit sectors.
The AI system is designed to manage the entire loan process, from acquiring leads to servicing, significantly reducing the time required for tasks that typically demand extensive manual labour.
The integration of Covecta’s technology has resulted in a 60-80% decrease in task completion time, according to findings by Metro Bank and Covecta. This reduction is expected to lead to notable improvements in team efficiency, decision-making, and risk analysis.
Metro Bank Corporate & Commercial managing director Andy Veares said: “Covecta’s AI capabilities will help us to continue to grow in the most efficient way. Metro Bank is rapidly growing lending to corporate and commercial businesses: last year, new loan originations increased by 71% and we want to do even more this year.
“This AI solution frees up more time for our corporate and commercial banking experts to spend servicing our customers, which goes to the heart of our relationship banking ethos.”
Covecta CRO Ben Thomas said: “Metro Bank has demonstrated a relentless focus on the customer throughout our engagement. We believe this ethos, paired with Covecta’s domain-specific Agentic AI capabilities will deliver incredible value, so we’re delighted to be supporting Metro Bank on this journey.”
In November last year, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Metro Bank about £16.7m for insufficient monitoring of money laundering risks.
From June 2016 to December 2020, the bank reportedly failed to maintain adequate systems and controls to effectively oversee more than 60 million transactions, totalling over £51bn.
