Tesco Personal Finance renamed Tesco Bank

by Gill Montia

Story link: Tesco Personal Finance renamed Tesco Bank

On presenting its 2009/2010 interim results yesterday, Tesco announced that it has renamed Tesco Personal Finance as Tesco Bank.

The supermarket giant says the move recognises its “longer-term objective of creating a full-service retail bank for Tesco customers, offering a range of banking and insurance services through branches in stores and online”.

The group first indicated its ambitions in the UK banking sector in July of last year, after it became sole owner of Tesco Personal Finance, previously a 50/50 joint venture with Royal Bank of Scotland.

The unit currently offers credit cards plus savings and insurance products and initially Tesco Bank will continue to focus on these areas of the market.

However, the retailer has plans to launch a current account in late 2010 and possibly expand into mortgages after that.

Also in yesterday’s statement, the group said it has already selected the core technology platforms for its banking products.