Newp: https://bbg.co.uk/
I’m pretty sure the brand is still crown property, and the mortgages have been sold in parcels, none of which have ended up with Nationwide nor Clydesdale Bank plc.
Branson only bought some parts of Northern Rock, not the distressed mortgage books.
Girobank wasn’t really a commercial bank though, it was effectively an arm of the government - not unlike NS&I.
Far easier to mutualise something in that state than it will be to mutualise either of the two banks being consumed (even though one was previously owned by a different sort of mutual!).
You’re right that the mortgages with issues went to treasury essentially and those poor folk are stuck to this day. I think Virgin took the OK ones though.
Ironically, Girobank was probably the most commercial bank in the country as it did massive proportion of cash handling that nobody else wanted to do.
As an indication of how long Nationwide might take to integrate Virgin, it was over ten years before it was properly integrated. Very complex for customers e.g. those Santander customers with a Girobank sort code could continue to use the post office whilst those with Abbey National or Alliance & Leicester ones couldn’t for rather a long time. So, whilst Virgin customers can use the post office now, probably best not to expect the Nationwide to re-enable deposits anytime soon.
Yes, exactly, it did unprofitable stuff nobody else wanted to do, as a public service.
While I agree it’ll take a very long time (and Nationwide are certainly setting the expectations at that), I think the two situations are so different that it’d be silly to try and project a precedent set by one on to the other.
So far as I know, Virgin took the post-nationalisation Northern Rock ones, and none of Bradford & Bingley. It’s not listed on that website, for sure (tho neither is it on the NRAM ones, some of which did transfer).
Sounds like the Bradford & Bingley weren’t too hot on risk management if Virgin walked away from theirs. Mind you, Northern Rock didn’t seem to be much better.
It is a shame that so many of the BSs bit the dust so quickly after they were able to spread their wings. Let’s hope that Nationwide, Coventry and any others going down a similar path don’t meet that fate.
Got my email today too. It’s in addition to any Fairer Share payment they make later in the year, which is nice!
So did I - was completely unexpected - as I rarely use Nationwide these days (due to them being fairly naff) after closing the nearest branch, lacking Post Office deposits or even just able to pay-in the occasional cheque via the noughties inspired app.
You can now see payment references in the app 
