Virgin Money partners with Fintech Trade Ledger as part of a new business banking proposition

LONDON, April 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Virgin Money continues to build its business banking proposition, adding FinTech partner, Trade Ledger, which specialises in data-driven lending technology.

Trade Ledger is a leading global technology provider for the commercial banking and financial services industry, supporting banks by enabling lending products to be created and offered at the right time, over the right channel. Its platform has a lending-as-a-service (LaaS) capability, supporting secured and unsecured lending, to unlock all types of working capital and business lending products for businesses that otherwise find access to finance difficult.

The partnership with Trade Ledger allows Virgin Money to deliver a quicker and more user-friendly experience for business customers applying for lending. By using Trade Ledger's platform, which analyses data and automates a wide range of key lending processes, Virgin Money will be able to provide a quicker, more efficient service to its customers while reducing risk. The initial Trade Ledger products in scope for the Virgin Money Working Capital Health proposition include business term loans, asset finance and invoice finance.

Virgin Money's partnership with Trade Ledger is part of its commitments to the £35m award from the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) Capability and Innovation Fund in 2020.

Gavin Opperman, Group Business Director at Virgin Money, said: "Customer experience is key as we prepare to bring our business banking proposition to the market in the Autumn. Our FinTech partners are allowing us to create something completely new for businesses, and lending is an important part of the conversation. We have seen first-hand the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on our business customers and we want to be able to support SMEs as they seek opportunities to recover and grow.

"With its flexible architecture and ability to cater for the widest range of commercial lending products, our partnership with Trade Ledger complements our digital proposition and will help us to support customers more effectively."

Roger Vincent, UK Managing Director at Trade Ledger, said: "Trade Ledger's technology has been purpose built to support banks and lenders who are looking to take the lead with data-driven lending product innovation and technology-led transformation.

"We're thrilled to be working with the team at Virgin Money because they recognise the value in using data to reimagine working capital for the digital economy. Our partnership will help to get capital to the businesses who really need it at a critical time."

About Virgin Money

Virgin Money is a full-service digital bank, serving 6.5m customers across the UK. It offers market-leading products and services to meet the full range of customers' retail and business banking needs. Virgin Money aims to provide a consistently world-class experience for customers through its leading technology platform, telephone banking and a national network of innovative stores and business banking centres. By making banking better, Virgin Money seeks to deliver on its purpose of 'Making you happier about money'.

About Trade Ledger

Trade Ledger was founded in 2016 to help the financial services sector reimagine complex business finance for SMEs and mid-market corporates in the digital economy.

The lending-as-a-service (LaaS) platform supports all secured and unsecured business lending products, transforming data sources from the supply chain into actionable insights and tasks. This enables the right lending products to be created and offered at the right time, over the right channel, quickly, at low risk. Its clients boost their profitability, realising on average a 60% origination cost reduction, a 50% reduction in dropouts and loan book growth potential of over 100% through embedded finance.

Backed by venture capitalists Point72 Ventures, Foundation Capital and Hambro Perks, and other notable investors such as Court Lorenzini (founder of DocuSign), Trade Ledger is currently scaling globally to accommodate a fast-growing client base of global trade banks, regional and national banks, and alternative finance providers. To date it has raised £16.6 million.

Trade Ledger was awarded LendTech Initiative of the Year 2020, Lending Platform of the Year 2019, and Startup of the Year 2019.

To find out more about Trade Ledger, see www.tradeledger.io ^[1]

For further information contact:

Virgin Money Press Officepress.office@virginmoneyukplc.com ^[2] +44 (0)800-066-5998

Christina Kellychristina.kelly@virginmoneyukplc.com ^[3] +44 (0)748-490-5358

Trade Ledgerpr@tradeledger.io ^[4]