Virgin Money’s SME franchise to deliver £500m of new deposits

Figures published by Virgin Money showed that the challenger bank is on target to deliver £500m of new SME deposits through its SME savings franchise by the end of 2018.

The bank’s H1 2018 figures showed that its underlying profit reached £141.6m in the first half of the year, up by 10% from £128.6m in the first half of 2017.

Progress

The figures showed that Virgin Money’s underlying total income stood at £343m in H1 2018, up by 5% from £327.3m in the same period in 2017.

These results were reported after Virgin Money reached an agreement with CYBG on a £1.7bn takeover deal, which will see the two banks merging to create a new bank.

Virgin Money first launched its SME deposit account earlier this year and is currently making progress in developing a digital platform.

“Our partnership with Virgin Atlantic has got off to a flying start and the development of our digital banking platform is progressing well,” said CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia, who is set to step down following Virgin Money’s deal with CYBG.

Improvement

Virgin Money also reported an improvement in its gender pay gap, with Gadhia stating that the bank is taking steps to meet the requirements of the Women in Finance Charter, of which the bank is a signatory.

“I am delighted that we have continued to improve our gender pay gap, which reduced by a further 9% over the last year,” she said.