Virgin Money

Infobox Company
name = Virgin Money

type = Private (Limited liability)
genre =
foundation = start date|1995|3
founder = Richard Branson
location_city = Norwich
location_country = England
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products =
services = Finance
revenue =
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parent = Virgin Group
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homepage = http://www.virginmoney.com
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Virgin Money is a UK-based 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.

Virgin Money currently offers a number of products, most of which are run in conjunction with other financial service providers. As of 2008 it offers the Virgin Credit Card (issued by MBNA), a prepaid debit card (issued by Clydesdale Bank), loans (Provided by Co-operative Bank and Freedom Finance), mortgages (provided by The One Account), cancer cover (provided by Scottish Widows), insurance - split into cancer insurance, life insurance, car insurance, home insurance, pet insurance and travel insurance (underwritten by UK Insurance and Scottish Widows), savings accounts and ISA's (provided by The Royal Bank of Scotland) and pensions.

History

It launched as Virgin Direct in partnership with Norwich Union during 1995 offering PEP's and launched Virgin One, in a partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland, in 1997. In 2000, virginmoney.com was launched as a price comparison website. In 2002, Virgin Direct merged with virginmoney.com to form the current company.

International operations

In 2003, Virgin Money launched its first venture outside of the UK by introducing its credit cards in Australia. Virgin Money Australia is partly owned by Macquarie Bank Pty Ltd [ [http://www.macquarie.com.au/au/about_macquarie/media_centre/20051108a.htm Macquarie Bank takes stake in Virgin Money] , Macquarie, 8 November 2005] and has added home loans (2006) and superannuation (2005) to their product suite. In 2007 they branched out of only selling products in direct channels, by launching a team of self-employed contractors selling their products 'face to face'. In 2008 they had to pull their planned launch of personal loans and stop their home loan product due to lack of consumer demand and its provider Macquarie Bank's inability to fund further product. Now, the company is largely defunct.

In 2006, Virgin Money South Africa launched with a credit card initially in a partnership with ABSA.

In 2007, Virgin Money launched in the USA after the Virgin Group made a majority stake investment in CircleLending [ [http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/16/circlelending-becomes-virgin-money-usa-gets-makeover-and-millions-in-funding/ CircleLending Becomes Virgin Money USA; Gets Makeover and Millions in Funding] , October 16 2007, Tech Crunch] . CircleLending was founded by US entrepreneur Asheesh Advani in May 2000 [ [http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=7664381 Virgin Money USA] , BusinessWeek] [ [http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2006/08/thanks_for_the.html 'Thanks For The Mortgage Dad' Start-up - CircleLending Funded by Intel/Omidyar] , The Alarm Clock] [ [http://www.entrepreneur.com/columnists/asheeshadvani/65020/bio.html Asheesh Advani: Startup Financing] , Entrepreneur.com] , launched in 2001 [ [http://www.intel.com/capital/news/releases/060821.htm CircleLending secures $10 million in series B financing to accelerate growth] , Intel] and incorporated in July 2002. At this time, it primarily facilitates peer-to-peer loans similar to Prosper.com, Zopa and Lending Club. However, Virgin Money US focuses on borrowers and lenders who already have an existing relationship (such as friends or family) unlike its competitors in the P2P lending business.Fact|date=October 2008

Northern Rock bid

On 13 October 2007, Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Group were putting together a consortium of financers to propose to plough millions into the troubled Northern Rock bank and in return take approx a 30% stake in the business, bringing the current financial products offered by Virgin and combining them with Northern Rock's own financial products. [ [https://uk.virginmoney.com/newscentre/press-releases/2007/virgin-led-consortium-proposal-northern-rock.html Virgin-led Consortium submits proposal to Northern Rock plc] , Virgin Money] By February 2008, Virgin were the favoured bidders for the bank and announced in its official submission to the government that, if successful, they would have merged the Northern Rock and Virgin Money, naming the new company "Virgin Bank". [ [http://uk.virginmoney.com/newscentre/press-releases/2008/virgin-consortium-submits-formal-proposal.html Virgin Consortium Submits Formal Proposal] , Virgin Money] The bid was not successful.

References

External links

*Official|http://www.virginmoney.com/worldwide/