The named positions the FCA published against the bank as it disclosed a loan classification error in January 2019, raised new equity and changed its leadership.
Figures are the sum of named positions of 0.5% or more, from FCA data, 360 points between 2 Jan 2018 and 16 Dec 2020.
Under the UK's pre-2026 regime, every net short position of 0.5% or more of a company's share capital was published with the holder's name. Summing those disclosures for Metro Bank Holdings Plc gives a lower-bound measure of how much of the bank was sold short. The sum began this window at 2.03% on 2 Jan 2018, which is also the window's low, and rose through 2018.
The high point was 12.49% on 3 May 2019. A figure at that level is unusual for a listed bank, whose share register is normally dominated by long-only institutions, and it was reached within four months of the disclosure described below.
On 23 January 2019 the bank told the market that a portion of its commercial loan book had been given the wrong risk weighting, which changed its reported capital position. In May 2019 it raised new equity from shareholders, and later that year both its chief executive and its chairman announced their departures.
The register shows named positions close to their high through the spring of 2019 and only partly reduced by the end of that year. By 16 Dec 2020, the last day inside this window on which any position of 0.5% or more sat on the register, the sum stood at 5.39%.
Two things follow from how the old register worked. Positions below 0.5% were reported to the FCA but never published, so the real short interest on any day was at least as high as the figure charted here; and a holder falling back under the threshold disappears from the chart whether or not the position was closed. An equity raise adds to share capital, so an unchanged position also becomes a smaller percentage.
From 13 July 2026 the FCA publishes a single aggregate figure per company instead of named holders. That newer series, which is not comparable with this one, is on the Metro Bank Holdings Plc page.
Full history and today's figure: Metro Bank Holdings Plc.
Figures are as published by the FCA; this site is not affiliated with it. The narrative describes what the published figures showed and widely reported public events around them; it is not a description of any company's prospects and is not investment advice.