Credit cards boost Virgin Money

British challenger bank Virgin Money Holdings saw a 26% rise in first-half underlying pretax profit, helped by growth in the bank’s core mortgages, savings and credit card businesses.

Underlying pretax profit rose to £128.6m (€143.7m) for the six months ended June compared with £101.8m a year earlier.

The lender, which reported a 7% rise in mortgage balances, said Britain’s housing market is expected to remain “resilient”, but warned in the near term there may be some “areas of weakness to be navigated”.