The announcement was made as the specialist bank released its Q1 2018 trading update.

Virgin Money stated that gross mortgage lending reached £1.4bn in Q1 2018, and added that it was making good progress in the development of its digital bank.

“Our customer-focused strategy of growth, quality and returns continues to drive strong business performance,” said Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive officer at Virgin Money (pictured above)

“We have also made good progress in delivering on the strategic initiatives we announced last year.

“We launched our SME deposit account in January and look forward to additional product launches later in the year.

“We have seen a stronger than expected customer response to the launch of our first Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer cards, demonstrating the strength of customer affinity with the Virgin brand.

“And we continue to make good progress in the development of our digital bank.”

In March, Virgin Money announced a joint venture with Aberdeen Standards Investments.

“In addition to the strategic initiatives, we are focused on growing assets at the right price and quality in a competitive mortgage market and are pleased to report 10.4% year-on-year growth in our mortgage book,” added Jayne-Anne.

“We remain on track to deliver on the targets we set at the end of last year.”