(24 August 2009 – UK) As Governments are looking to revive their economies with increased lending and subsequent spending, non-bank corporations are finding opportunities as full service banks.In the UK, retailing giant, Tesco, announced a new customer service centre to back up its move to becoming a full service retail bank.
Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) announced that it is set to create over 800 jobs in Scotland with the opening of the new customer service centre.
Such is the bolster for the UK economy; TPF received a grant from the Scottish Government for £5 million to assist in creating the service centre.
The division of Tesco, which provides loans, credit cards and savings accounts, has reportedly been looking to take business from some of Britain’s larger banks as customers in many cases have been finding it harder to get credit.
Andrew Higginson, chief executive of Tesco Retailing Services, said the new customer service centre, which is due to open in the first half of next year, is a significant step towards TPF offering a full banking service.
Tesco Personal Finance currently has around six million customer accounts across 28 products, covering insurance, savings, credit cards, personal loans and online insurance and utilities comparison through Tesco Compare.