Goodwin associate to join Virgin Money bid

A CLOSE associate of Sir Fred Goodwin during his time at the helm of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been hired to help Virgin Money prepare its bid for Northern Rock’s “good bank”.

Iain Allan – who is now also a part-time honorary visiting professor at the Cass Business School in London – has been brought on board on an “ad hoc” basis to provide Sir Richard Branson’s bank with advice addressing the recent Independent Commission on Banking and its public affairs strategy.

Allan was hired as RBS’s director of strategy by then-chief executive Sir George Mathewson in 1993, and is thought to have later become a member of Goodwin’s inner circle.

Allan left RBS more than two years ago, after having helped to devise the bank’s disastrous takeover of ABN Amro at the top of the market in 2007. The move led to the bank becoming 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer after a multi-billion government bail out.

There are a number of ties between Virgin and RBS. Jayne Anne Gadhia, Virgin Money’s chief executive, joined RBS in 2001 when Branson sold his offset mortgage product, Virgin One, to the Edinburgh-based lender for £100 million. She left five years later.

The UK Treasury is expecting final bids for Northern Rock to be in by the end of October, with Virgin and venture capital firm JC Flowers thought to be in fierce competition.

Allan is an actuary by training. He joined RBS from Scottish Amicable Investment Managers.