Tesco to open bank branches in its stores: report

The UK's largest supermarket Tesco will open bank branches in 30 of its stores by this year-end, at a time when people are disillusioned and distrustful of existing high street banks, media reports says.

"Tesco has appointed a raft of heavyweight figures from financial institutions such as Barclays and Scottish Widows as non-executive directors of its Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) division to oversee the move into mainstream banking," the Telegraph said.

In July last year, Tesco decided to buy out RBS from their financial joint venture for 950 million pounds and said it plans to set up full-service retail bank.

The branches are likely to be called Tesco Bank, the report added.

Quoting Tesco Retailing Services' chief executive Andy Higginson, the Telegraph said the supermarket's bank will be "old-fashioned and conservative".

Customers will be able to gain Clubcard loyalty points through using the bank.

The first of the new branches will open next month in Brislington, Blackpool and Coventry following a trial in Glasgow. Tesco could eventually have banks in all its branches, the newspaper said.