And so it begins?
Wonder if B survives in anyway. Guess switchover is easy given no current account customers on virgin side.
Also they end up with double the size branch network even though CYBG has been actively closing theirs, presumably they’ll be cutting those back again.
Who’s next?
Virtually all their branches are in the north of England and Scotland though. I grew up in Bradford and there were Yorkshire Bank branches everywhere, I imagine those are the ones they’re closing where they deem them underused or too close together.
This will give them branches in the south, which I guess they’ll keep and ditch the ones up north.
I was with B for a while. It was alright. I would have gone back to a regular Yorkshire Bank bank account (same but with a non gaudy app) only they don’t allow you to open those online.
Can you really call a nearly 200 year old bank a challenger bank?
It’s not so much the age for me it’s more that in my opinion, unless you’re adopting a different business model - as opposed to just getting a new banking license, marketing & pricing strategy - you’re not a challenger. To be fair, there’s not a lot of 200 year old banks that are adopting radically new business models right now! But it could happen.
We will see more consolidation from the ‘challengers’ that don’t have a new business model & ultimately, I worry about whether they’ll manage to really disrupt the U.K. market.
Thats ok though because we have Monzo & Starling etc. who will 
Virgin Money have a current account. A rather crud one mind you - such limitation on online banking it’s crazy.
100% what @alexs said.
I wouldn’t call Virgin a challenger, more of shrewd opportunist. Acquisition of the ‘prime’ bits of Northern Rock: £15/16bn customer deposits, £14bn lending book, 70+ branches and a million customers for £750m - at a 30% discount to what HM Treasury had to stump up to keep the wheels turning.
Traditional banking, based on balance sheet originated lending, with the added ‘benefit’ of the Virgin Money Lounge. 
Talk about rolling the proverbial in glitter!
The term ‘challenger bank’ is an interesting one. It seems to be used for any bank (no matter how digital or innovative) that might take market share off of the big 5. So TSB was sometimes referred to as a challenger (to the big lot’s market share).
I think what we’re interested on here is more around here are challengers that disrupt the model, rethink banking, operate for the internet age etc. In this sense they’re a challenger to the way that things have been done (as well as to market share, obvs!)
That’s my take on it from an uninformed, reading the internet, perspective at least…
You do know you could have just use the Yorkshire Bank app if you chose Yorkshire Bank for your B Account? I don’t use the B app because of the flipping** chicken.
** This is not used as a swear word. It literally flips.
Didn’t Virgin announce a new current account built from the ground up this year? I assume that’ll get shelved if so.
They are still trading as virgin money so I don’t see why.
It couldn’t be worse than the one they have now
For those who want to see the chicken masterpiece, here it is in all its glory: B - Yorkshire/Clydesdale Bank
I’m not sure what the “designers” were thinking. I’m all in for disrupting the status-quo, but a flipping chicken is not disruptive in any way, it just looks stupid.
I have an urge to ruthlessly kill all chickens now, and that’s without being forced to see it every time I open their app
As if that’s still there!
Is the basketball?
So they have chickened out on the original design and made another balls up
It’s probably a lot of old men sat in a room wondering ‘what are the kids into these days’ and it was between this, Tamagotchis, Game Boy Advances, Skoobies or those aliens that were meant to have babies if you put them in the fridge.
When I got a b account a while back and that came up I knew I’d made a mistake 
.
It’s closed now anyway didn’t think it was that good
Not sure if the chicken is worse than the KBC Ireland app’s start-up. Which is a picture of a mildly-hipsterish young lady doing a surprised gasp whilst looking at her phone.
(Completely still picture except for the hair, which blows about)
I always liked HSBC’s start up images, not all that relevant though.
Lloyds are quite nice also. Tends to change every few weeks / when they update the app. 
Halifax is bad… (had to use them for our mortgage as I was on a zero hour contract at the time and they were the only ones who’d take us)
It used to be a dog wearing a bow-tie (although it’s currently a multi coloured child’s windmill toy).
