As reported in Fairfax outlets today, Coles has announced plans to offer personal loans by teaming up with GE Capital and will split the cost 50/50. The new service planned is planned for launch mid-2015. It will need regulatory approval, but Coles will not need a banking licence. 400,000 Coles MasterCard customer accounts form part of the venture which is targetting a lending book of $800 million in its first year. Coles already announced plans to launch its “mobile wallet” using a credit card chip embedded in a sticker that can be applied to the case of a smart phone. The sticker also contains a barcode linking purchases to flybuys rewards. A smartphone application will provide assess to transaction data and a flybuys statement.
