Press Release - 6 November 2008

VIRGIN MONEY LAUNCH VIRGINMONEYGIVING.COM

Virgin Money, the financial services arm of the Virgin Group has launched 'Virgin Money Giving', an independent not-for-profit organisation designed to facilitate widespread UK fundraising and help charities receive more of their charitable donations.

Over £100m was raised through online giving in 2007 and is expected to be even higher in 2008 and beyond because of the many benefits it affords charities, fundraisers and sponsors. Virgin Money Giving will help charities take advantage of the growth in online fundraising by making sure they get more of the money raised.

Unlike established providers in the online giving market who charge a fee on both the donation and Gift Aid, Virgin Money Giving (virginmoneygiving.com) will charge a significantly lower fee on the donation and no charges on Gift Aid. It will be run on a not-for-profit basis and will cover the running costs only, meaning the maximum amount possible reaches the charities themselves.

Sir Richard Branson announced the new venture at a fundraising dinner in London last night. He said: "When we announced the sponsorship of the Virgin London Marathon I said our aim was to help runners smash £¼ billion in five years. Virgin Money Giving is going to be the key engine behind that. It will be run on a not-for-profit basis so millions of pounds currently lost to charities will find their way direct to the good causes rather than profit the shareholders."

Virgin has signed a five-year deal to be the official sponsor of the London Marathon, the biggest fundraising event in the world. The inaugural Virgin London Marathon is on the 25^th April 2010. Virgin Money, the financial services division of the Virgin Group is leading the London Marathon sponsorship with the ambition to help runners raise £¼ billion over 5 years and will use its infrastructure, online capability and financial expertise to deliver that through Virgin Money Giving.

Sir Richard added: "When looking at the ideas to help the Marathon runners raise more money for charity Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive at Virgin Money said why stop there? And so Virgin Money Giving will be rolled out beyond the Virgin London Marathon to become the website for fundraising in the UK."

Virgin Money Chief Executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia, said: "Our goal is to help people raise as much as they can for charity by providing a great service to fundraisers, charities and sponsors. By operating on a not-for-profit basis we can ensure more of people's hard-earned donations make it to the charities for good causes."

Virgin Money Giving Commercial Director Joanna Barnett said: "We want to give all charities the same opportunity to raise huge amounts of money, including the smaller ones who can't afford to spend lots of money on technology. Using virginmoneygiving.com will free them up to do what is important, raising money for their cause."

She added: "Our research tells us that there are four central themes that charities are looking for in this space. Better pricing so they can keep more of the donations received, functionality, reliability and last but by no means least independence, which is why we have set up Virgin Money Giving as a separate entity from sister company Virgin Money and on a not-for-profit basis. We are excited about this development as it will add millions of pounds to the bottom line of UK fundraising."

Charities who would like more information should go to: virginmoneygiving.com. The site will go live in the Spring of 2009.

-Ends-

Notes to editors:-

About Virgin Money
Virgin Money is Virgin's financial services arm and was established in 1995.

Virgin Money has over two million customers and offers a wide range of financial products across lending (e.g. credit cards and personal loans), savings (e.g. deposits, investments and pensions) and protection (e.g. life assurance, household and car insurance) to the UK market.

For more information, please visit Virgin Money

About Virgin
Virgin, a leading branded venture capital organisation, is one of the world's most recognised and respected brands. Conceived in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group has gone on to grow very successful businesses in sectors ranging from mobile telephony, to transportation, travel, financial services, leisure, music, holidays, publishing and retailing.

Virgin has created more than 200 branded companies worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people, in 29 countries. Revenues around the world in 2006 exceeded £10 billion (approx. US$20 billion).

For further information:-

Media enquiries only:
Scott Mowbray, Head of Public Relations, Virgin Money, Tel: 07906 444540

Charity enquiries only:
Vince O'Donovan, Relationship Manager, Virgin Money, Tel: 08456 10 10 45