Virgin Money sees home lending leap

Virgin Money has reported a leap in mortgage lending for the first nine months of 2015, with its share of the UK gross mortgage lending market at 3.5 per cent for the eight months to August.

Notes and coins

The so-called challenger bank, which listed last year and is headed by chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia, said gross mortgage lending jumped 38 per cent to £5.5 billion for the nine months to the end of September, while net mortgage lending almost doubled to £2.6bn from a year earlier.

The gross mortgage lending share is based on Bank of England data available until the end of August.

Gadhia said: “I am delighted with the strong performance of the business in all areas in the first nine months of 2015. I am particularly pleased with the continuing strength of our mortgage business.

“The demand for our new range of credit cards has exceeded expectations in the quarter as customers have responded to the quality and breadth of our proposition. As a result we remain confident that we can grow our credit card business to our target of £3bn of balances by the end of 2018.”

The firm is evaluating plans for SME banking.