Monitise Co-CEO Alastair Lukies said, “There are significant opportunities ahead for Virgin Money in the digital space. We’re looking forward to supporting the bank across a number of exciting initiatives in its journey to transform the way consumers can manage their money.”

And by initiatives, Lukies means mobile. Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia specifically mentioned the importance of the mobile banking channel as a way of driving growth for her newly-public company. As part of the seven-year deal, Monitise will help the bank develop its own products and services leveraging Monitise solutions such as its Bank Anywhere account management app and Pay Anyone and Buy Anything P2P payment and e-commerce apps.

Dubbed “UK’s Coolest Bank” this fall by The Centre for Brand Analysis, Virgin Money is a retail bank operating in the UK. With more than 2 million customers and £24 billion in assets, Virgin Money went public in mid-November, trading under the symbol “VM” on the London Stock Exchange. The bank was founded in 1995 by Sir Richard Branson, who owns 34% of the company after selling a 15% stake worth £70 million last month.

Monitise is one of the largest mobile banking, payment, and commerce solution providers. The company serves more than 350 financial institutions around the world, has 30 million users, and processes four billion mobile transactions a year worth $88 billion. 

Other recent Monitise news includes being named to the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 in November, which recognized the company’s growth rate of 2,000% over the past five years. Monitise also formed a strategic partnership with Santander in September, and announced an expansion of its partnership with IBM in August. We profiled how Monitise was helping banks engage in e-commerce earlier this year.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in London, Monitise is a charter Finovate alum, demoing at the inaugural event in 2007.