(Reuters] – Metro Bank reports Wednesday a smaller loss than expected and higher margins in 2021. This is because the turnaround plans of the British high-street lender have been successful and the economy has recovered from the COVID-19 outbreak.

After being granted a licence for high-street banking in Britain, in 2010, the London-based bank was subject to a turbulent two-year period. This is after an accounting error in 2019 that led to penalties and investigations by UK regulators.

Since then, it has launched a turnaround program that focuses on cost control, revenue growth and net interest margin expansion, balance sheet improvement, and infrastructure investment.

Metro posted an underlying pretax loss in the year ending Dec. 31 of 171.3million pounds ($232.87million) compared to 271.8 million pounds for the previous year when it was affected by large, pandemic-related bad loans provisions.

After the December 5,38 million pound fine by the Bank of England and provisioning for British financial regulators’ ongoing probe and other costs, the lender’s annual statutory pretax loss reached 245.1 million pounds.

Net interest margins, which are key indicators of profitability, increased to 1.4% in 2018 from 1.22%. The bank is now on solid ground for 2022, and will continue to increase yields despite rising rates.

The year saw a 2% increase in loans to 12.29 Billion Pounds and an additional 2% rise in deposits to 16.45 Billion Pounds.

($1 = 0.7356 pounds)