Metro Bank, the 16 month-old UK high street lender styling itself “revolutionary”, has recruited a well-known wealth executive to spearhead a new private banking division.

Kirsty MacArthur joins the London-based firm as head of private banking and will build a team of four or five senior wealth managers. She joins Metro Bank on 31 October.

She was recruited from Heartwood Wealth Management, where she worked for two years as a divisional director. She previously worked at Switzerland’s UBS and UK wealth manager Coutts & Co. For two years running she was voted a "Rising Star" in a ranking of promising young City executives compiled by Dow Jones Financial News.

Metro Private Bank claims it is positioning itself as a firm “which is about banking and not about investments, centred on strong relationships with clients.”

“In the last 16 months customers have joined Metro Bank from other high street banks, and high net worth banks as well. We wanted to offer them the additional expertise and knowledge that they require for their individual needs, which is why we have decided to develop the private banking proposition and hire Kirsty to head this up,” Craig Donaldson, chief executive of Metro Bank, said in a statement.