The financial services operation of Marks and Spenser (M&S) is to enter the UK’s retail banking market as a provider of current accounts among other mainstream products, it has been announced. Around 50 new bank branches branded with the well known M&S logos are now set to open over the course of the next few years as the company looks to significantly expand its range of financial offerings.
Already a sizable provider of credit cards, personal loans and savings accounts in the UK, M&S is planning to launch a new current account in the autumn of as part of a major push into the wider market. The first official branch opening is scheduled for July, with a site in its existing flagship high street store at Marble Arch in central London earmarked for that purpose.
“This bank will be built on M&S values; putting the customer at the heart of the proposition and delivering the exceptional service that sets us apart from the competition,” said Marc Bolland, chief executive of the Mark and Spenser group. “M&S is one of the most trusted brands on the UK high street and we’ve achieved this by continually listening and responding to the needs of our 21 million customers,” he went on.
A new M&S Bank operation is to be officially established in support of the company’s wider endeavour in the industry, with the new current accounts very much integral to that effort. As a statement from M&S pointed out, it already boast some three million financial service customers in the UK through M&S Money and it has been involved in the industry in one way or another for over 25 years.
Its latest efforts in the arena are being backed up by HSBC, whose UK chief Joe Garner described the M&S tie-in as its most significant innovation since First Direct was set up over two decades ago.
It is currently anticipated that the expansion of M&S’s personal finance product range and the opening of dozens of branches will result in somewhere close to 500 new jobs being created around the UK.
