Virgin Money, the British financial group backed by Richard Branson, said today it had returned to profitability at the end of its fourth quarter and expected to deliver an annual profit in 2013.
Its strong profit growth stemmed from its take over of nationalised lender Northern Rock in January 2012, the group said in a trading update.
It said the number of customer accounts have risen by 1.7 million since the acquisition, while retail deposit balances and mortgage balances have seen growth of 14% and 19% respectively.
The company reported an underlying loss of £8.4m sterling for 2012, compared to £59.1m a year earlier, but forecast an annual profit on an underlying basis for 2013.
The bank also said its core Tier One ratio stood at 18%, compared to the 7% ratio that regulators have demanded that British banks achieve by the end of the year.
''We are well positioned for continued strong growth and look forward with great optimism," said chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia.
In January the group bought £1 billion of assets from Bank of America's MBNA unit and said it plans to launch its own credit card arm.
