Barclays teams up with Asda for supermarket sweep

ASDA and Barclays have today announced plans to open bank branches within Asda supermarkets.

Four pilot bank branches will open from February 2014 with the first at an Asda at Birchwood, near Warrington.

A further three will open in West Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Kent, with the aim to extend the pilot to eight.
 
Steve Cooper, head of Barclays retail and business bank, said: “We’ve spoken to our customers who use our everyday and business banking services in our branches and they’ve told us their time is precious so would benefit from being able to multi-task, park easily and visit branches with longer opening hours. This partnership with Asda means they can do their food shop and bank at the same time, with the opportunity for a new flexible banking experience in a way that’s most convenient for our customers.”

Karen Hubbard, executive director for property and multichannel at Asda, said: “This is the next step in the evolution of how we continue to make our stores relevant to our customers’ everyday needs, giving them access to banking services to use at their convenience – when they want, and how they want it. Access to banking services is an under-rated but important asset to any community but in many areas, these services just aren’t available to families. In partnership with Barclays, we’ll trial banking services in our stores for the communities which need it the most.”