London - Virgin Money, the British financial group backed by Richard Branson, said on Friday it will launch a credit card business after buying £1bn ($1.6bn) of assets from Bank of America's MBNA unit.
The loans being bought are from the Virgin credit card portfolio which has been managed and serviced by MBNA since 2002 under a partnership agreement.
The book will be fully transferred to Virgin Money early next year. Virgin Money, which bought Northern Rock a year ago, said it expected to create at least 150 new jobs through its own credit card business.