The company pioneered the offset mortgage in the UK; it was conceived as a joint venture between Virgin Direct (Virgin's financial services company) and The Royal Bank of Scotland in 1997.

Initially, the company was known as the 'Virgin One account' and promoted to Virgin Direct's 200,000 strong UK customer base.

From January 2003, the company relaunched as 'The One account' when The Royal Bank of Scotland took a majority shareholding, becoming an RBS mortgage brand along with NatWest and First Active.

A low, mortgage-style interest rate is charged on the net balance of the account on a daily basis.

Since customers pay their salary into the account this money has the effect of reducing the average balance and, therefore the interest paid when compared with a traditional mortgage loan.