Three years after rejecting it’s first attempt to buy Northern Rock, the Government today agreed a deal to sell the taxpayer-owned bank to Virgin, for an initial price of £747 million. The deal will see the taxpayer receive a further £150 million down the line and an extra £80 million should the bank, which topped a mis sold PPI table four years ago, be sold within five years.
The dark days could be over for Northern Rock customers and staff
Overall the taxpayer will still lose out to the tune of £500 million having paid £1.4 billion to bail out the bank back in 2007, but as customers we stand to gain, potentially, a lot more. Virgin are one of the two new powerhouses in retail banking that could revolutionise the UK retail banking sector, the other being Tesco.
With service models more closely aligned to high street stores, offering longer opening hours and competitive pricing, Virgin and Tesco will hopefully give the UK public banking services to be proud of.
To read more about the Virgin take over, have a butchers here…
