metro bank holdings on tuesday swung to a pretax profit for the first half of 2023 and backed its return on tangible equity target of a midsingle digit by 2024 the uk lender posted a pretax profit of 154 million pounds 198 million for the sixmonth period ended june 30 compared with a pretax loss of gbp602 million for the comparable period a year earlier driven by improved margins from its balance sheet optimization and cost inflation control actions it said total underlying revenue rose to gbp2856 million from gbp2365 million a year earlier with underlying net interest income up 22 at gbp2215 million its net interest margin was 214 for the halfyear period it said customer deposits slipped 3 from the second half of 2022 to gbp1553 billion in line with market conditions though it saw net deposit inflows in june and the trend continuing in july it said the bank ended the period with a common equity tier 1 ratioa key measure of balancesheet strengthof 104 whilst we remain watchful of macroeconomic headwinds we have the expertise capability and infrastructure in place to unlock our future growth potential chief executive daniel frumkin said