Virgin Money has made a dramatic recovery since the panicky days of early July, when it was seen as one of the most vulnerable companies to a hard Brexit and was thumped. The shares have bounced by more than 50 per cent in three months.
Yesterday’s third-quarter figures underline exactly why investors lap up Virgin in good times, but also why they tend to dump the shares at the first sign of economic trouble: the company is an energetic credit machine.
Credit card balances surged by 41 per cent, while net mortgage lending was up by 33 per cent. This is a lively pace of lending expansion by any measure. Virgin is snaffling market share at a rate of knots; the question is whether it