Aiming to have 200 branches in the Greater London Area within a decade, the USA's latest export, Metro Bank, intends to make a break from traditional banking by opening seven days a week and believes that within five years of its launch it will have built a balance sheet consisting of £4.1 billion in assets and nearly £300 million in equity.

Silcock Dawson has been engaged by RPA Architects to work in conjunction with lead Architectural firm, Inter Arch in New Jersey, to develop the design of Metro Bank's premises and reproduce this in the UK, to UK standards. The firm is presently working on two projects in the London area, Cromwell Road, London and Borehamwood.

The firm's primary project and Metro Bank's 'poster board' to Heathrow arrivals and potential London customers, is the Cromwell Road site. The base building for the site in Earls Court is the old 5-storey Malaysian Airlines building, where Metro Bank is occupying two floors and the basement. Silcock Dawson is providing full design and coordination in the three main M&E disciplines. The central glazed atrium is set to become the main customer banking area, extending over three floors. The second project is completely different, with totally different problems to overcome and involves the conversion of an existing retail unit in the Borehamwood retail park. A part of this second installation will be a separate call centre with full generator back up.

In addition, Inter Arch and their second design team are banking on Silcock Dawson's expertise in assisting with the final specification of their lighting requirements at the head office branch at Southampton Row, London.

Both Cromwell Road and Southampton Row are due to be launched by the end of September 2009, with the Borehamwood branch due for handover in February 2010. A fourth London-based branch is imminent but the location is yet to be confirmed.