Metro Bank reported on Wednesday a 78 percent year-on-year jump in third quarter revenue, helping the British retail bank swing into positive earnings territory with a £0.6 million pound pre-tax profit versus the £3.4 million loss recorded in this period of 2015.
This was the first time Metro Bank has achieved a quarterly underlying profit.
The lender also notched up a 66 percent rise in deposits and a 73 percent lift in its lending as customer accounts as of the end of September rose to 848,000 from June's 780,000 count.
Metro Bank's balance sheet continues to display ratios comfortably above regulatory requirements with the closely watched common equity tier 1 ratio sitting at 20.4 percent. This compares to a regulatory leverage ratio of 7.4 percent.
Despite this, brokers at RBC Wednesday morning cut its outlook on the bank from sector outperform to perform.
Analyst at Jefferies reiterated their 'buy' call on the stock on Wednesday, praising "execution of a unique business model" and sounding an optimistic tone looking ahead.
The note from Jefferies calls for a price target of 3,000 pence and says the bottom line is "Q3 contains all of the elements that make us positive on MTRO and gives conviction in our 2020 RoTE (Return on Total Equity) of 18 percent."
Speaking on CNBC on Wednesday, Founder and Chairman Vernon Hill said the bank was not expecting the EU referendum outcome to be a significant gamechanger, even over time.
"I don't really think there's been an impact yet, I think it'll take time to see. I don't really think there'll be a tremendous impact," he said.
Instead, Hill attributes Metro Bank's success to the fact the start-up challenger bank is not burdened by the problems the five biggest U.K. banks have.
According to Hill, "When you get to build a bank from scratch with modern IT, with all the fintech, with all the mobile – the customer wants the best of every delivery channel."
"We're in the market share take business...customers want a choice and we are a choice," he added.