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ESG Ratings
Sustainalytics 18.5 MSCI AA Moody's ESG Solutions 51

We have a long, proud history of supporting communities, colleagues and customers.

Our purpose-led approach to financial inclusion is evidenced through our aspiration that no Virgin Money customer will be paying a poverty premium by 2030. The cross-sector poverty premium task force, chaired by David Duffy, has expanded to cover cost of living more broadly. We are working with the Smart Data Foundry (SDF) on a national measure that identifies and quantifies the impact of poverty premiums across our collective consumer bases so that we can better identify drivers and develop solutions.

We have continued to embed our approach to financial inclusion and vulnerable customers and, as part of our ‘Money on your mind’ website offering, we’ve launched a new cost of living hub which supports customers with money-saving suggestions, budgeting tools and links to external resources.

At Virgin Money, the freedom to be your true self means everything to us. Our six inclusion networks, each with an executive sponsor, play a big part in leading the way on this. Our career sponsorship programme within our networks is designed to support colleagues to grow within their role and develop their career. Colleagues receive tailored support over a 12-month period to support their personal and professional development to reach their career aspirations.

Virgin Money has a zero-tolerance approach to slavery, servitude, forced labour and human trafficking (modern slavery) and we have refreshed our approach through the mobilisation of a cross-functional working group.

The Virgin Money Foundation supports organisations with the vision to change their communities for the better and we proudly support their vision, donating vital funds, and delivering purpose across the UK by supporting its four grant programmes (Community Anchors, Young Changemakers, Leading the Way and Colleagues in the Community). The programmes tackle issues caused by poverty, provide opportunities for education, training, employment and voluntary roles, and provide advice around debt, benefits, and financial support. With the soaring cost of living we believe that tackling the Poverty Premium is more important than ever before making these services incredibly valuable to the community they serve.

As part of our partnership with Macmillan, we want to ensure our customers feel comfortable disclosing their cancer diagnosis so that we can provide the most relevant help and support, and have launched Virgin Money Macmillan Guides and two-way referrals for customers in financial difficulty. We’re delighted to have extended our charity partnership and have set a new fundraising target of £500k by end of FY23 which will help to fund Macmillan’s vital support line services and cancer workforce.

Fast Facts

  • Since embedding the Turn2Us benefits calculator on our website we’ve received over 650,000 social media views, generating 5,250 bespoke reports, confirming or uplifting benefits and grants entitlement of £1.12m.
  • We’ve raised £309k for our official charity partner Macmillan and are setting pace ahead of our target of £500k by FY23. In addition to this, we have made additional sponsorship and donations of £215k.
  • The Virgin Money Foundation continues to support local people in creating positive change in their community and last year awarded more than £1million to 102 beneficiaries.
  • Since the launch of our flagship schools programme – Make £5 Grow – more than 160,000 children have participated.

2030 Aspirations

No VM customer paying a poverty premium.

Sponsor diverse talent at every level and achieve a fully diverse top-quartile of the organisation.

Short > Medium Term Targets

Raise a further £500k for Macmillan by FY23.

Diversity targets across gender (45% to 55%), ethnicity (10%), LGBTQ (4%) and disability (8%) by 2025*.

* These targets are set with reference to the Census and Office of National Statistics data, in order to ensure we are representative of the UK and therefore remain under constant review as census data changes