Good performance in ‘challenging conditions’ for Virgin Money UK

Virgin Money UK has published its results for the full year to 30 September 2019, which include a statutory loss after tax of £194m.

The company says the loss reflects legacy conduct costs and restructuring and acquisition costs.

It has reported underlying profits of £539m, a 7% decrease due to higher impairments.

However, the listed business saw customer lending growth of 2.9% to £73bn, and a rise in business lending growth of 4.5% to £7.9bn.

Personal lending rose by 16.1% to £5bn, driven by Virgin Money credit card growth, new balances from the firm’s Salary Finance partnership and an improved online personal loan proposition.

And today’s results also feature mortgage lending growth of 1.7% to £60.1bn.

Dividend has been suspended for FY19 in light of additional PPI provisions. The company’s Board will reconsider dividends for FY20 in line with normal practice.

Virgin Money UK PLC was formerly known as CYBG PLC. The Virgin Money takeover was first announced last year and the company was renamed on 30 October 2019.

David Duffy, chief executive officer, said: “In the first year of our newly combined business, we have delivered a good operating performance in challenging conditions and made great progress on the integration and rebrand to Virgin Money.

“Our statutory result was significantly affected by additional PPI provisions, driven by the unprecedented surge in PPI information requests in August, along with anticipated Virgin Money acquisition-related costs.

“Our customer divisions have performed well – we have delivered a further c.£2bn in net lending to support UK SMEs and consumers, attracted c.£3bn in customer deposits, and made marked improvements to our customer experience.

“We achieved all the required approvals in 2019 to enable us to operate as one bank, with one brand, and are ready to deliver our strategy to disrupt the status quo with brilliant customer service and unique Virgin Money products.

“In December we are launching Virgin Money’s first digital personal current account and three new Virgin Money concept stores.

“A unique loyalty and rewards programme for customers featuring a number of Virgin Group companies will follow in 2020, along with the launch of our brand new Virgin Money business account.”