Build a Brighter Future

Supporting society for the long term

Given the nature of our balance sheet, and as a UK-based bank, we have an opportunity to make a real difference supporting our customers and colleagues across the country in making the transition to a low-carbon economy.

During 2023, we expanded our transition plans to cover c.85% of our total customer lending, across the most material lending sectors, as outlined by the NZBA.

We’ve developed policies to mitigate the greatest harm in our most material sub-sectors, which will be rolled out in a phased approach through 2024. This includes analysis of customers’ own transition plans and ensures we provide transition funding to customers who are likely to make the biggest changes in emissions.

We continue to engage and support customers through our products and tools. The Sustainable Business Coach is helping businesses to measure their ESG progress against the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, is free to access for all UK businesses.

We continue to offer a Sustainability Linked Loans proposition (defined as loans Virgin Money generates without an arrangement fee where the customer has met the pre-set ESG related criteria) which reduces the cost of finance for businesses who help the economy transition to a more sustainable model. Virgin Money is the first bank in Europe to use a science-based methodology to appraise eligibility.

We’ve worked with carbon consultancy firm, Carbon Metrics, who have conducted on-farm carbon audits and co-authored our net zero report, which provides background to climate change specifically relating to agriculture, and suggestions on how farmers can adapt and plan their own journey towards net zero. We offer our Agri customers 0% arrangement fees through the E Fund when a farmer completes a carbon audit and is going to invest in emission reducing initiatives, like renewable energy, energy efficiency initiatives or activities that reduce greenhouse gases.

We are on a mission to improve the energy efficiency of UK homes and to improve the EPC profile of our Mortgages portfolio.  In partnership with property search portal Rightmove and energy tech specialist Sero, we’ve designed a proposition – the Green Makeover Mortgage – that will enable customers to make energy efficient home improvements and support the UK’s transition to Net Zero.