Wesfarmers Limited’s (ASX:WES) supermarket business Coles is widening its reach in the financial services sector to take on Australia’s Big Four banks.
Coles has announced the 50:50 joint venture financial services business with GE Capital Australia will offer credit cards and personal finance products.
Subject to approvals the business is expected to start operating next year and will leverage new payment technologies to deliver financial services to Australian consumers.
Coles Finance Director Rob Scott says a JV is a logical next step for Coles to expand into financial services and build on its Coles No Annual Fee and credit card Rewards offerings.
Coles expects its existing 400,000 MasterCard customer accounts to form part of the JV while Coles Insurance products will not be included.
Wesfarmers reported a net profit of $1.4 billion in the first half of the 2014 financial year.
