Bullish in London: English see Vernon Hill as another Trump

"Most British bank analysts do not get it," says Vernon Hill, the Moorestown banker and real estate man (and NJ and Fla. golfing buddy of President Trump, who helped market Hill's old Commerce Bank to New Yorkers), who now runs London's 50-branch Metro Bank (UK).

Hill's bank is worth $3.5 billion (U.S.), and is on a trajectory, if it keeps gaining value, to join Britain's FTSE 100 index of major stocks in the next year or two, even though "it has yet to turn a profit" -- showing a popularity with investors which has left UK pro stock-watchers "baffled" as pollsters in last year's elections, Britain's Sunday Mail newspaper points out in this Hill interview.

Hill's stake (almost 6%) is worth more than $200 million, half what he collected when TD Bank bought out Hill and other Commerce shareholders in 2007.

As with Commerce before its fortunately-timed purchase, Hill argues it's wrong to measure his bank against stodgy national lenders. British bank-watchers "have never seen anything like a growth bank before," he told the Mail. "We are growing towards prosperity; (British banks) are trying to cut their way to prosperity." Metro isn't so much a bank; "it is much more like an Apple."

That kind of comparison made it an easy step for the Mail to compare Hill, 71, to his friend Trump: "Both of their fathers were in property, though Hill's did not make the same fortune as Trump senior, and both attended the same renowned business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 'I went to Wharton like Trump,' says Hill. 'Our years crossed but I didn't know him then.'"

Hill revels in the voter rebellion that made Trump President and pulled Britain away from the European Community: "Brexit was a revolt of the population against the Establishment in Brussels and in London. Trump is a revolt against the Establishment in Washington," Hill said, clearly approving the triumph of pro-capitalist forces.

The Mail says Hill encouraged the Trump comparison: "I am a revolutionary," he told the paper. Like his marketing slogan for Metro:  "Join the revolution".

And also a conservative: Hill says he's building Metro "exactly the way we did (Commerce in) the New York model – change nothing – and that is the key to our success."

Are branch offices still the way to go in this mobile and digital world? In South Jersey and Philadelphia, Hill is a major investor in Republic Bank, where he was recently made chairman. Observers tell me the branches are often less-than-busy, but suggest that might not be a problem, if you see the smaller Republic branches as shiny billboards for the brand.

Hill and his wife Shirley, chief branch designer and quality-control boss, march into pet-friendly Metro branches with their Yorkshire terrier Duffy, who replaced their earlier dog after its death in 2015.

Like U.S. banks that have been boosting commercial-and-industrial loans by more than 10 percent a year since the recession, Hill says half his traffic is from Britain's long-suffering small businesses. Metro speeds account openings.