Virgin Money is a financial services brand used by three independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Money branded services are currently available in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Virgin Money branded services were formerly offered in the United States. Each Virgin Money branded entity acts independently from the others, thus the products vary from country to country.
Current brand licensees
Virgin Money Australia
currently has operations in Australia with 150,000 customers.
Virgin Money South Africa
Virgin Money currently has operations in South Africa. In 2006, Virgin Money South Africa launched with a credit card initially in a partnership with ABSA worth $33 million.
currently has operations in the United Kingdom, the company was initially established as a personal finance company under the name of Virgin Direct in 1995, and the Virgin Money brand itself was introduced in 2000. Virgin Money vastly increased its size and customer base in 2012 with the purchase of the so-called 'good bank' portion of the nationalisedNorthern Rock bank. In 2018 the entire UK operation of Virgin Money was sold to CYBG plc in a £1.7bn all-share deal which made the group the sixth-largest bank in the UK. On 31 October 2019 CYGB plc changed its name to Virgin Money UK plc.
In 2007, Virgin Money launched in the USA after the Virgin Group made a majority stake investment in CircleLending, a company that facilitated peer-to-peer loans. Virgin Money USA entered into dissolution on 1 November 2010, and is no longer listed as a Virgin property on the Virgin Money home page; the Virgin Money US site itself was also dismantled. Virgin Money subsequently withdrew entirely from the US market and its social lending servicing was transferred to its servicing partner, Graystone Solutions, which continues to service the social loans under its own brand.
Corporate identity
Virgin Money's logo is focused around the main logo of Virgin Group, which is an underlined word 'Virgin' in a red and magentagradient coloured circle. This logo was introduced in January 2012 to signify the purchase of Northern Rock, which used a magenta logo. Some versions of the logo use a plain red circle, such as the variant used frequently in South Africa. Virgin Money's older logo was the word 'Virgin' in a red rounded skew rectangle, similar in shape to a credit card, followed by the word 'Money'. This logo remains in use in South Africa. The previous logo had used a red logo with the word 'Virgin' in a large circle and three smaller circles above the word 'Money'. Virgin Direct's logo had been a more simplistic rendering of the company name, in white on top of a red rectangle with a semicircle attached on the left side.
