Supermarket giant to start offering mortgages next year

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced that it plans to start offering mortgages next year with plans to open a new call centre in Glasgow that will create around eight hundred new jobs.

Over recent years Tesco has been branching out in the finance market, offering products and services such as insurance cover, loans, and credit cards, and will now complete the set by offering mortgages, which it hopes will be available by the end of 2010.

In addition to mortages Tesco is also looking to start offering current accounts, increasing the choice that consumers in the UK have when it comes to banking and mortgages.

Officials from the supermarket have said that with traditional High Street banks being so restrictive with mortgage lending these days now is the ideal time to break into the market and prove to be a competitive rival.

The move into the mortgage market by Tesco has even been backed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, who has made his frustrations with the banking sector clear, stating that unless banks start lending again the chances of economic recovery will be seriously hampered.

He has praised the creation of new jobs by Tesco and visited its base in Edinburgh this week.

Darling stated: ‘We need more competition in the banking sector. People need choice.’ 


Officials believe that the supermarket could make in excess of £500 million once it starts to offer home loans and current accounts. However, one senior official said that the group was aware that breaking into this sector in the current climate could prove to be a challenge, stating: ‘It is hard to ignore that people’s trust in the banking sector is at a very low ebb.’




Tags: finance, Mortgages, supermarket mortgages, street banks, ideal time, northern rock