Metro Bank has confirmed it is axing around 1,000 jobs and warned over further staff cuts as part of an overhaul that will also see branches no longer open seven days a week.

The troubled high street lender said previously announced plans to cut annual costs by £50 million was seeing it shed around 22% of its 4,266-strong workforce by mid-April – higher than the originally expected 20%.

It said it was looking to cut another £30 million by the end of 2024, which chief executive Daniel Frumkin cautioned would “inevitably” lead to more jobs going.

He also said that from March 29, all 76 stores will no longer open on Sundays or bank holidays and opening hours will be cut following a review launched last autumn.

The group said that the bulk of its branches – 44 sites – will only be open five days a week, from Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5pm.

The remaining 32 stores will be open six days a week, from 9.30am to 5pm on Monday to Friday, and 11am to 4pm on Saturdays.

Metro Bank branches are currently open from 8.30am until 6pm from Monday to Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Sunday.

But Metro Bank said it would not close any of its branches under the overhaul, with plans to open at least another 11 sites, mainly across the North of England.

Mr Frumkin said despite rowing back on its seven-days-a-week trading, it would “still be open more hours than other competitors on the high street”.

On the extra cost savings, he said not all of it would come from additional job losses, but said “inevitably some will have to come from colleague costs”.

Details of the overhaul came as it reported a £16.9 million underlying loss for 2023, narrowed from losses of £50.6 million in 2022.

On a statutory basis, the group said it returned to profit for the first time since 2018, with pre-tax profits of £30.5 million.

The plans to end its seven-days-a-week and extended hours service marks a key climb-down over aims to focus on high street banking.

The lender was set up in 2010 as a challenger to the regular banks, with the longer opening hours forming a major plank of its strategy.