Virgin have been all over the net today, and I wasn’t sure which story even to comment on.  This one at the Independent is a good one, because it summarises quickly the recent direction at Virgin.

Virgin Money launches US ‘friends and family’ lender – Independent Online Edition > Business News

Virgin Money, the business unit through which Sir Richard Branson hopes to acquire Northern Rock, yesterday launched the next stage of its US expansion, with a novel new service enabling friends and families to lend to each other.

Virgin Money USA launched the Family Mortgage after acquiring CircleLending, a specialist financial services company, earlier this year. It has pioneered a business model through which family members or friends can lend money to one another at agreed rates of interest on commercial terms.

So they are have announced the acquisition of CircleLending, which Jim reports at $50M.  More importantly in my view, Virgin are announcing their move into the mortgage space.  Northern Rock and CircleLending are both in mortgages.  The former being traditional mortgages, and the latter in ‘social lending’ morgtages. 

Listening to the back channels, I suspect that Virgin are looking at more than mortgages with the acquisition of CircleLending.  This company has done $200M in mortages so far … clearly a $50M purchase price is picking up a business model more than a portfolio.

Exciring times!

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