The lender announced on February 27, that it would be cutting 500 jobs and closing 52 branches across the UK this year.

Of the branches earmarked for closure, six of them were Clydesdale Bank branches.

The closures and job cuts were part of Virgin Money’s integration process to bring together the operations of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank with Virgin Money and move towards using the single Virgin Money brand across the business.

The planned changes included the closure of 22 branches and consolidation of a further 30 branches, as well as the rebranding of the entire branch network to Virgin Money by October 2020.

In addition, an anticipated reduction of around 500 full-time equivalent (FTE) roles across the group was announced in February as part of the forecast reduction of c.16% of FTE roles across the combined Group, announced during the acquisition of Virgin Money in 2018.

Lucy Dimes, group business transformation officer at Virgin Money UK, said: “Our primary focus is on supporting our customers and protecting our colleagues during this challenging time. As a result of the impact of Coronavirus in the UK, we have decided not to proceed with the integration changes we announced in February.”

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