Remain supporter Richard Branson sees massive Brexit BOOST for his Virgin Money group

The challenger bank enjoyed its strongest ever quarter for mortgage lending after the June referendum vote in favour of Britain leaving the European Union.

It reported a 19 per cent rise in gross mortgage lending to £6.5bn for the January-September period, representing a 3.6 per cent share of the UK mortgage market, according to Bank of England data.

It also enjoyed an additional £5m interest income following the Bank’s decision to cut the base rate in the wake of the June 23 result.

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Richard Branson’s Brexit predictions are crumbling apart

Chief executive officer Jayne-Anne Gadhia said: “Post the referendum vote, we had our strongest quarter ever for mortgages and credit card business grew strongly too.”

Post the referendum vote, we had our strongest quarter ever

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief-executive

But Sir Richard was one of the most vociferous critics of the move to become an independent nation.

He was a leading proponent of Project Fear and found himself embroiled in controversy after the referendum when he blamed Brexit for the Virgin Group cancelling a deal which would have delivered 3,000 jobs 

However, he was accused of scaremongering after neither he nor the Virgin Group would confirm any details of the alleged deal.

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The company witnessed its strongest ever quarter in in mortgages

Some economists were predicting the onset of recession in Britain following the surprise vote to leave the European Union, warning it would likely trigger higher bad debts and poorer lending volumes at banks already challenged by rock-bottom interest rates.

But recent data has shown the economy and housing market remaining upbeat and results last week from Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group have defied the pessimism.

Ms Gadhia said Virgin Bank had a robust mortgage pipeline at the start of its final quarter and it was on track to end the year with “solid” double digit returns.

Credit card balances rose to £2.2bn at the end of September, 41 per cent higher than full-year 2015, demonstrating strong demand for consumer credit.

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Sir Richard Branson was a leading figurehead of Project Fear

However, growth slowed in the third quarter after the bank tightened credit scores for card applications after the referendum, as it stepped up efforts to protect the credit quality of new lending.

It remains on course to meet a target of £3bn in card balances by the end of 2017.

The bank also said it had teamed up with former Barclays Plc CEO Antony Jenkins’ 10x Future Technologies to build Virgin Money’s digital bank and has accelerated plans to issue £160m of new bonds.