Virgin Money UK
 |
|
| Public limited company | |
| Traded as | : |
| Founded | 3 March 1995 |
| Founder | Richard Branson |
| Headquarters | Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom |
|
Number of locations
|
75 Stores and 5 Lounges |
|
Area served
|
United Kingdom |
|
Key people
|
Glen Moreno (Chairman) Jayne-Anne Gadhia (CEO) |
| Services | Finance Banking Mortgages |
| Revenue | £521.9 million (2015) |
| £168.3 million (2015) | |
| Profit | £111.2 million (2015) |
| Owner |
Virgin Group (34%) W.L. Ross (23.3%) Stanhope Investments (1%) |
|
Number of employees
|
3,058 (2015) |
| Parent | Virgin Money Holdings (UK) PLC |
| Website | uk |
Virgin Money plc is a UK-based bank and financial services company owned by the Virgin Group and founded by Sir Richard Branson in March 1995. It was originally known as Virgin Direct, and pioneered index tracking by launching a value Personal Equity Plan into the market. In the 2000s Virgin Money expanded its operations around the world.
Virgin Money announced plans to become a retail bank, and attempted to purchase Northern Rock in 2007 before it was nationalised by the British Government. Virgin applied for its own banking licence from the Financial Services Authority in 2009, and gained one through the acquisition of Church House Trust the following year. Virgin bought Northern Rock plc in January 2012 and rebranded the business as Virgin Money. The holding company for Virgin Money, Virgin Money Holdings (UK) plc is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
It launched as Virgin Direct Personal Financial Services Limited in partnership with Norwich Union on 3 March 1995 offering PEP's and launched Virgin One, in a partnership with The Royal Bank of Scotland, in 1997. In 1997 Australia's AMP bought Norwich Union's 50% stake in Virgin Direct. In 2000, virginmoney.com was launched as a price comparison website. In 2001 RBS bought out Virgin's stake in the One Account joint venture.
In 2002, Virgin Direct merged with virginmoney.com to form the current company. In the 2000s Virgin Money expanded its operations around the world. In April 2004 the Virgin Group took 100% ownership of Virgin Money, buying the remaining 50% stake for £90 million from AMP's HHG arm.
In 2007 Virgin made a bid to acquire the Northern Rock bank; this initial bid failed. In an interview with The Times on 9 March 2009 Branson stated that he still hoped that Virgin Money would expand its operations into the banking sector, by saying "We are going to get back into the mortgage business and we will become a bank either by acquisition or by getting our own banking licence. You will see us become a consumer bank within the next couple of years." In October 2009, Virgin Money applied to the FSA for a full banking licence. In February 2011 they announced their intention to lease a large office in Edinburgh.
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Wikipedia