Virgin mortgage products could set the marketplace alight

If Virgin Money are able to come up with new and innovative home loans, Virgin mortgage products could set the marketplace alight. Brokers believe that Virgin is in a position to offer a serious challenge to the largest mortgage lenders in the UK.

Virgin Money's purchase of Northern Rock could open up the mortgage lending market as there are few innovative mortgage deals available at the moment. Many contractor mortgage hunters penilised by other lenders are hoping that a Virgin mortgage could offer a way for them to buy a home

As part of the deal, Virgin Money inherits 75 Northern Rock branches, a mortgage book worth £14 billion and an additional one million customers. Northern Rock was a successful building society for more than 100 years but only survived 10 years as a plc bank before the government had to bail it out.

In total Virgin Money has about three million customers across its range of cards, insurance, pensions and other investments. The Northern Rock deal will bring an additional one million, mainly savings and mortgage customers.

Virgin plans a “light rebrand” of Northern Rock to make it clear that it is part of the Virgin Group. It is working towards, what its chief executive Ms Jayne-Anne Gadhia called “red day”, which will be when the Northern Rock name disappears and is replaced by Virgin Money’s red and white branding.

A Virgin spokesman said that Northern Rock mortgage customers need not take any action as products are rebranded to a Virgin mortgage. Virgin advised that all exsisting mortgage customers will eventually benefit from an improved service and a better range of financial products.