The chief executive officer of Santander is mulling a bid for Metro Bank’s mortgage portfolio in the event it goes up for sale.

Speaking on Wednesday, the Spanish bank’s boss Hector Grisi confirmed that it would consider the move after Metro earlier this month announced a £325 million capital raise and £600 million in debt refinancing.

At the time, Metro said it was in discussions over the sale of up to £3 billion of residential mortgages.

When asked at a news briefing about the potential interest, Grisi said: "We have to review it, we have to analyse it and then we will make a decision whether we go ahead or not, but it is always important to analyse it.

"Today the truth is that I don't know whether Metro will end up doing something or not, whether it will sell a portfolio or not."

Metro Bank, which became the UK's first new high street bank in more than a century when it launched in 2010, is operating at the edges of its capital requirements. It was plunged into uncertainty in early September when the Bank of England denied a request to use its own internal models to assess mortgage risks.

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