Virgin Money has reported an increase in pre-tax profits of 53% to £160.3 million for 2015, from £104.8 million in 2014.

During last year, mortgage balances increased to £25.5 billion, up 16% versus market growth of 1.8%.

Gross mortgage lending totalled £7.5 billion, representing a market share of 3.4%, and net lending reached £3.6 billion,
representing a market share of 10.6%.

Mortgages over three months in arrears totalled 0.22% compared with the latest industry average of 1.12%.

Meanwhile, retail deposit balances increased to £25.1 billion, up 12% versus market growth of 7%.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive at Virgin Money, said: “I am delighted to report a 53% increase in underlying profit for 2015 which ended the year at £160.3 million. We have performed strongly against our objectives, including delivering market-beating growth in our core mortgages, savings and credit card businesses, maintaining the quality of our balance sheet and delivering a customer satisfaction rating among the highest scoring retail banks in the UK.

“Growth in our mortgage book outpaced the market as we continued to support demand for housing in the UK. Our savings franchise continued to flourish and deposit balances are now higher than at any point in our history. The success of our new credit card business, following the successful migration of credit card accounts to our own platform, means we now expect to grow card balances to at least £3 billion by the end of 2017, a year earlier than planned.

“We will continue to put our customers at the heart of everything we do and look to the future with confidence.”