J Sainsbury set to ramp up banking arm by luring customers in with points
J Sainsbury, Britain’s third biggest supermarket, is ramping up its banking arm, by launching a new scheme that will see shoppers rewarded for buying its financial services products.
Sainsbury’s Finance will allow customers to earn double Nectar points for taking out home insurance, or opening an account, but it will also give Sainsbury’s account holders one per cent off grocery shopping.
Sainsbury’s revamped banking products is an explicit effort to rival Tesco’s recent re-launch of its Clubcard and its rebranding of Tesco Personal Finance to Tesco Bank.
Both supermarkets hope to capitalise on the decline in consumer trust in the financial sector during the downturn. But their banking divisions also are set to boost shopper numbers.
Research out yesterday reveals that 59 per cent of people believe they would be willing to spend more in their supermarket if they had a financial services product that adequately rewarded them on their shopping.
Chief executive of Sainsbury’s Finance Neil Chandler said: “We know that only 13 per cent of people are satisfied with the level of loyalty reward they currently receive from their finance provider, and 35 per cent claim they don’t receive any at all.”
Sainsbury’s Finance currently has around 1.5m active customers.