Tesco goes into banking

You know how on Saturdays you get up slightly earlier than you would on a Sunday to go out and do your weekly shop, buy some things for the house, maybe pop into the bank, perhaps pay in some money or withdraw some for the weekend, check your balance, maybe set up a standing order, get the newspaper, and fill up the car on the way back? Well at least it will be a far shorter journey from one service to the next.

Tesco is poised to buy the 50% stake that the Royal Bank of Scotland holds in Tesco's personal finance branch for £950 million, thus making the business wholly owned by the supermarket mammoth, so that it may develop its existing services, such as insurance (car, home, personal), and add new services, such as current accounts. They will also intensify their marketing campaigns for these services, in order to become a worthwhile competitor to other banks on the high street.

Even though Tesco has had insurance services for while now, it still only holds a small percentage of the market in that service. The supermarket company now hopes to improve their stake in the market by hiring former RBS execs to be on the board. It is strange that the same place where I bought half a kilo of Turkey breast fillet last night, at a reduced price of 90 pence I must add, will now also be able to arrange for my rent payments. Not necessarily a bad thing (although I can't really see an upside either) but definitely strange. Like a huge sort of creature that mutates,engulfs and incorporates what grows around it.

I'm dying to run into someone 15 years from now who runs a finance department but who started off in the frozen food section.