Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, is banking on the Sex Pistols to keep her business growing as well in the second half as it did in the first when profits jumped 37%.
“The first half saw strong growth in mortgages, particularly as people opted to fix their rates ahead of any interest-rate rise,” Gadhia said.
“But we also moved 675,000 credit cards bought from MBNA onto our platform without any regulatory or technical issues and that will be another driver of growth.
“The launch of the Sex Pistols-branded cards really got some cut through and interest.”
The bank made headline profits of £81.8 million in the six months to June with mortgage lending up by 8% to £23.6 billion.
A dividend of 1.4p a share is being paid.
Virgin Money was formed largely from the good bits of Northern Rock. Sir Richard Branson owns 41% of the bank and his partner in the Northern Rock deal, Wilbur Ross, owns 39%.
It listed on the London Stock Exchange last November.
