Virgin Money mortgage balances hit £33bn

Jayne-Anne Gadhia

Shares of Newcastle and Edinburgh-based challenger bank Virgin Money rose about 5% after it gave investors a positive trading update and outlook for rest of the year.

Virgin Money said its mortgage balances rose to £32.9 billion at September 30 from £29.7 billion at December 31, deposit balances rose to £30 billion from £28.1 billion, and credit card balances rose to £2.8 billion from £2.4 billion.

Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia said: “Our low risk business model and customer-focused strategy continues to deliver excellent results and I am delighted with the ongoing momentum of the business.

“The UK housing market continues to prove resilient and in a competitive mortgage market we remain focused on growing assets at the right price and quality.

“Our prime credit card business is developing as planned and, as a responsible lender, the strict and consistent application of underwriting standards supports a low and stable cost of risk as well as resilience in the future.

“Ensuring that our customers are always at the heart of our strategy has seen our overall Net Promoter Score improve to +40 in 2017, making Virgin Money one of the best-rated retail banks in the UK for customer satisfaction.

“I am delighted that more customers than ever before would recommend us to their friends and family.

“The strength of our core business and our focus on doing the right thing for customers, combined with our exciting plans for the future, gives us real conviction in our longer term prospects.

“We look forward to saying more about our plans for the future at our investor update on 16 November.”