Richard Branson’s Virgin Money is making a comeback to Australian banking, and threatening to bring some competition to the major banks in the mortgage market.
The company launched two new cards yesterday and an online savings account developed in conjunction with Citibank.
The next logical step, according to Virgin Money’s chief executive in Australia, Matt Baxby, is to move into mortgage lending and transaction accounts.
“We are not going to roll into it straight away, but wait until we've got these (credit cards) right and we've invested the time," he told The Australian.
Citibank would partner with Virgin Money to develop the mortgage products.
The Virgin Money credit card has “no annual fee ever” and charges 2.9% interest on balance transfers for the first six months and then 16.95%. The Virgin Flyer card allows users to collect frequent flyer points and offer two-for-one flights and a free flight when customers use the card before 15 October.
The Virgin Saver online account has an introductory variable interest rate of 6.75% per annum, which decreases after four months to 5.35%.
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