Virgin Money
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Virgin Money | |
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| Type | Private (Limited liability) |
| Founded | March 1995 |
| Founder | Richard Branson |
| Headquarters | Norwich, England |
| Services | Finance |
| Parent | Virgin Group |
| Website | http://www.virginmoney.com |
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 tun 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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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[1] 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 plan to launch personal loans.
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 [2]. CircleLending was founded by US entrepreneur Asheesh Advani in May 2000[3][4][5], launched in 2001[6] 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.
[edit] 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.[7] By February 2008, Virgin were the favoured bidders for the bank and announced in it's official submission to the government that, if successful, they would have merged the Northern Rock and Virgin Money, naming the new company "Virgin Bank".[8] The bid was not successful.
[edit] References
- ^ Macquarie Bank takes stake in Virgin Money, Macquarie, 8 November 2005
- ^ CircleLending Becomes Virgin Money USA; Gets Makeover and Millions in Funding, October 16 2007, Tech Crunch
- ^ Virgin Money USA, BusinessWeek
- ^ 'Thanks For The Mortgage Dad' Start-up - CircleLending Funded by Intel/Omidyar, The Alarm Clock
- ^ Asheesh Advani: Startup Financing, Entrepreneur.com
- ^ CircleLending secures $10 million in series B financing to accelerate growth, Intel
- ^ Virgin-led Consortium submits proposal to Northern Rock plc, Virgin Money
- ^ Virgin Consortium Submits Formal Proposal, Virgin Money
[edit] External links
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