Virgin Announce Intention to Move into High Street Banking

Virgin Money, part of Richard Branson’s multinational conglomerate, made a step closer towards becoming a major high street bank with the announcement that it intends to acquire branches belonging to Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock.

Lloyds are planning to sell 600 branches after the EU ruled that this was necessary for the sake of competition. Virgin Money is understood to be in the process of raising £2 billion to acquire the branches whilst the firm has also already got planning permission to open its first high street bank, in Norwich.

Branson announced the news on Twitter, profoundly describing it as “a compelling offer that could ultimately change the face of banking in Britain.” He went on to say “Banking has little competition in Britain which is why the European Union has asked Lloyds Bank to sell 600 of its branches. Had lunch with its Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osario to inform him we'd like to make a bid for these branches.”

Consumer group Which? have lent support to the plans, with their executive director Richard Lloyd, commenting: “The prospect of a new high street bank is good news for consumers as competition in retail banking has really suffered since the financial crisis. If Virgin can offer genuinely competitive products this should force the existing players to up their game.”