Richard Branson told the Times newspaper that the Virgin Group will return to the mortgage market and obtain a licence to operate a high street bank.

He told the paper: “We are going to get back into the mortgage business and we will become a bank either by acquisition or by getting our own banking licence. You will see us become a consumer bank within the next couple of years.”

Branson’s Virgin Group led a failed attempt to take over ailing lender Northern Rock last year. Branson, of the Government’s business advisers, said he was urging the Prime Minister to make the liquidity crisis a top priority.

Branson said: “The prime minister realises that the most dangerous thing is the liquidity issue. We cannot allow perfectly decent companies go to the wall just because they cannot get liquidity.”

Branson was giving the interview while flying round the world to promote the launch of his newest airline, V Australia.