Virgin estimates that it took 4.5% market share of new mortgage applications in the quarter. In addition, during the period, mortgage asset quality remained strong.
During the quarter the company increased retail deposit balances by over 3% to £21.8 billion, and successfully issued £1 billion of Residential Mortgage Backed Securities.
Effective management of mortgage and deposit pricing helped to increase the company’s underlying Net Interest Margin for the nine months ending 30 September 2014. The Company is on track to improve its underlying Net Interest Margin by approximately 5bps for full year 2014, from 143bps for the half year to 30 June 2014.
Virgin appointed Richard Hemsley as Chief Banking Officer, taking responsibility for the P&L for all business lines (with the exception of credit cards) and for distribution. Richard will join, subject to regulatory approval, in 2015.
The company also welcomes the announcement by the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England providing further clarity on the leverage ratio framework. As a result, and given its current leverage ratio of 3.8% as at 30 June 2014, the Company believes that it is well positioned with regard to the new leverage ratio framework.
Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive Officer said:
“Following a very strong performance in the first half of the year, we have accelerated our growth in the third quarter of the year, while continuing to build a high quality balance sheet to deliver increasing returns to our shareholders.
“One of Virgin Money’s core strengths is our robust capital position and high asset quality. As such we welcome the new leverage ratio framework announced today by the Financial Policy Committee, and are pleased to note that we operate in excess of the recommended requirements.
“In mortgages and savings, we achieved strong growth during the quarter, particularly in terms of new mortgage applications where we took a market share of around 4.5%. We also saw strong growth in our net interest margin and maintained a tight grip on costs despite investing in the build of our credit card and current account platforms.
“Looking to the future, we have a powerful brand, a strong balance sheet, a strong core business franchise and considerable opportunities to continue to extend our product range. The business has performed strongly in 2014 to-date and we are confident that we can continue to deliver progress against our strategy as we continue to grow the business.”
