Coles spreads tentacles into financial services
Wesfarmers’-owned Coles is venturing further into financial services, announcing a joint venture business with GE Capital Australia.
The 50-50 joint venture business will offer credit cards and personal finance products to begin with, an agreed memorandum of understanding said.
Coles said the joint venture will leverage new payment technologies to provide financial services, including the recently launched Coles Mobile Wallet.
It will also give customers, flybuys’ loyalty program, including discounts on groceries.
The venture comes after Coles recently announced it would offer life insurance cover for as little as $1 a week, with Metlife underwriting the venture.
“A joint venture is a logical next step for Coles to expand into financial services, building on the success of Coles No Annual Fee and Rewards credit cards,” Coles finance director Rob Scott said.
The current 400,000 Coles MasterCard customer accounts will make up part of the joint venture, totalling almost $800 million in credit card receivables.
The venture will start in 2015, subject to attaining regulatory licenses and approvals.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
Recommended for you
Despite the year almost at an end, advisers have been considerably active in licensee switching this week while the profession has reported a slight uptick in numbers.
AMP has agreed in principle to settle an advice and insurance class action that commenced in 2020 related to historic commission payment activity.
BT has kicked off its second annual Career Pathways Program in partnership with Striver, almost doubling its intake from the inaugural program last year.
Kaplan has launched a six-week intensive program to start in January, targeting advisers who are unlikely to meet the education deadline but intend to return to the profession once they do.
