Who wins from Nationwide’s £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money?

Swallowing up a challenger bank – at a bargain price – will strengthen the building society’s presence in current accounts, credit cards and unsecured loans, says James Moore

Nationwide has agreed to buy Virgin Money for £2.9bn (Getty)

Nationwide’s £2.9bn tilt at Virgin Money brings the Northern Rock saga full circle.

The one-time building society – which demutualised as a bank, only to have queues outside its branches at the beginning of the devastating financial crisis of 2007/08 – will, if this deal goes through, become a building society again. Or at least, the good part of it. (The government had to split it into a “good” and a “bad” bank to get it sold after rescuing the business from collapse; Virgin Money bought the latter.)

But will the deal actually go through? There’s a fair chance it will.