LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Virgin Money completed its acquisition of bailed out Northern Rock on Sunday, despite calls for the sale to be delayed while the national auditor investigates whether the deal is good value for money.
The government agreed in November to sell Northern Rock to Virgin Money -- the banking arm of billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group -- for between 747 million pounds and 1 billion pounds.
The deal does not recoup all of the 1.4 billion pounds spent by the authorities to keep the bank afloat during the credit crisis.
The Labour Party wanted the deal to be put on hold while the National Audit Office investigates the sale.
Northern Rock, the victim of the first run on a British bank in many decades, was nationalised three years ago after nearly collapsing during the credit crunch.
David Clementi, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, will be chairman of the new banking group and Jayne-Anne Gadhia will be its chief executive, Virgin said, announcing the deal's completion.
"We have a unique opportunity to build a new kind of bank in the UK, a bank that will aim to make a real difference and provide enhanced competition in UK retail banking," Gadhia said.
(Reporting by Matt Falloon; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
The clock outside this branch, on , Newcastle upon Tyne, is emblazoned with the bank's name and has become a popular image in print and television coverage of the Northern Rock crisis. 
Today  finalised a deal with the British Government to acquire the nationalised Newcastle upon Tyne-based bank  for £747 million. During 2012, the bank will be rebranded as a Virgin company and the current Northern Rock customers will become customers of the enlarged Virgin Money.

The Northern Rock bank had been  following the revelation that the company had received emergency support from the UK Government. Northern Rock had required support due to its exposure during the  in 2007. Sir 's  had a bid for the bank rejected prior to the bank’s nationalisation. In 2010, while nationalised, the current high street bank Northern Rock plc was split from the ‘bad bank’, . Virgin have only purchased the ‘good bank’ of Northern Rock, not the asset management company.

The deal which could have additional payments to put the total value of the sale to over £1 billion had been first announced on 17 November 2011 and was criticised by some as not being a good enough deal for taxpayers. Opposition such as the  requested that the  investigate the sale, and for it to be put on hold. By the beginning of 2012, the deal had been approved by the  and the  for merger clearance.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia will be Virgin Money's CEO and former deputy governor of the Bank of England, Sir , will be Chairman. Virgin have also pledged to maintain an operational headquarters in Newcastle upon Tyne as well as maintaining the current branches.