NatWest confirms takeover of Sainsbury’s Bank - how will one million customers be affected?
NatWest is set to takeover Sainsbury's Bank
PA
NatWest Group has announced its plan to takeover Sainsbury’s Bank for an undisclosed sum.
This is part of the supermarket retailer’s previously announced intention to remove itself from the banking sector to focus on retail.
The banking group, which includes NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, will take responsibility for Sainsbury’s savings, personal loan, credit card and retail deposit portfolios.
Under the deal, NatWest would take on an extra one million customer accounts, as well as £1.4billion of unsecured personal loans, £1.1billion of credit card balances and £2.6billion of customer deposits.
Currently, the acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. Despite this action, Sainsbury's has informed customers they would "not need to take any action".
Earlier this year, NatWest struck a deal to purchase Virgin Money for £2.9billion.
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The supermarket giant is offloading its banking division to focus on food
GETTY/SAINSBURY'SThe UK’s second largest supermarket chain said there would be no immediate changes to their terms and conditions.
Earlier this year, Tesco confirmed it was offloading its banking division to Barclays as more retailers withdraw from the sector.
Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s CEO said: “I am pleased to be announcing this news today.
“NatWest’s values and customer focus are a close fit with ours and as one of the UK’s leading banks, NatWest’s scale and financial services expertise will ensure our existing financial services customers continue to be well looked after.
“There will be no immediate change for our bank customers as a result of this announcement.
“Today’s news means we will focus all our time and resources going forward on growing our core retail business, delivering great quality and value, week in week out.”
Paul Thwaite, NatWest Group CEO, added: "Following today’s announcement, we look forward to welcoming new customers to NatWest Group, where they will benefit from our expertise and award-winning digital banking offering.
“This transaction is a great opportunity to accelerate the growth of our Retail banking business at attractive returns, in line with our strategic priorities.
“As well as a complementary customer base, the Transaction is expected to add scale to our credit card and unsecured personal lending business within existing risk appetite.
“NatWest Group has a strong track record of successful integration, and we are focused on ensuring a smooth transition for customers.”
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NatWest will only takeover certain parts of the banking business
GETTYHowever, this pending acquisition does not include Sainsbury’s Bank’s commission income businesses, including insurance, ATMs and travel money. Furthermore, Argos Financial Services (“AFS”) is also not included in the Transaction.
According to Sainsbury’s Bank, the division expects to return excess capital of at least £250million to Sainsbury’s once the phased withdrawal from its Core Banking Business has been completed and the future model for Argos Financial Services is in place.
The retail giant shared that it intends to return this capital to shareholders.
A further update on Sainsbury’s plans for this business will be provided at a future date.