The high street bank is understood to be looking to raise hundreds of millions of pounds ahead of future deadlines to refinance debts and a bond repayment due in a year's time.

The timeframes involved are not imminent.

The lender, which launched in 2010, issued a statement in the wake of a Sky News story on Wednesday that it had hired bankers to explore its fundraising options amid City concerns over its balance sheet.

The bank said: "The company continues to consider how best to enhance its capital resources, with particular regard to the £350m senior non-preferred notes due in October 2025.

"The company continues to meet its minimum regulatory capital requirements ... [and] is evaluating the merits of a range of options, including a combination of equity issuance, debt issuance and/or refinancing and asset sales.

"No decision has been made on whether to proceed with any of these options."

Sky's City editor Mark Kleinman said that one other option potentially available to the bank was to put it up for sale, should a refinancing prove cumbersome.

The Financial Times later said that Metro's chief executive and chairman had been summoned to meet regulators but the bank denied this was the case.

Metro Bank also updated on its recent financial performance in the statement to the market.

"For three consecutive quarters ended 30 June 2023, the bank has been profitable on an underlying basis, and it expects the Q3 (third quarter) trading update to show continued momentum in personal and business current account growth and customer acquisition, in line with expectations.

"Metro Bank continues to be well positioned for future growth."

Shares in the company, already more than 50% down over the past month, fell by as much as 29% in early deals on Thursday ahead of the latest statement and were suspended periodically due to volatility.

They settled 23% lower on the day by mid-morning.

The recent declines leave it with a market value of around £60m compared with a 2018 peak of £3.5bn.

Metro Bank has 2.7 million customer accounts, placing it among the country's 10 largest banks.

The issues it faces do not reflect poorly on the banking industry overall, according to investment group, Shore Capital.

"We believe that Metro Bank's issues are company-specific and do not provide significant read across to the rest of the sector," a research paper from the group said.

The firm recommended against further investment.

"Supporting a further capital raise for this struggling bank would be akin to throwing good money after bad, in our view, as it has already had enough time and opportunity to sort itself out and has been unable to do so," it said.

"Investors and bondholders may therefore be better served investing their money elsewhere."