Tesco Bank launches current account on off-the-shelf platform

Tesco has launched a current account four years after implementing its core banking platform.

Tesco set up its own core banking system in November 2009, when it selected an off-the-shelf system from Fiserv as it moved towards becoming a full-service retail bank. It went live with the system in October 2010.

At the time it already offered general, motor, home, pet and travel insurance, credit cards and personal loans, personal savings, and a network of cash machines, serving more than six million customers, but a core banking system would help it add services such as current accounts.

Problems related to the movement of savings and loans products from RBS systems, where they were run from, to the Fiserv platform saw Tesco slow its move to the off-the-shelf core banking system.

The Fiserv-based Tesco current account offers a mobile banking app, online banking and a contactless Visa debit card, which is also a Clubcard.

"In designing our current account we have listened to more than 20,000 customers to understand what they want," said Tesco Bank CEO Benny Higgins. 

"The account we are launching today offers all the features they told us mattered most. There are no gimmicks; just a simple, rewarding, modern, convenient current account, designed for Tesco customers, by Tesco customers,” he added.

Off-the-shelf core banking platforms are the technology of choice for new banks, as traditional banks experience problems with legacy systems. 

The unpopularity of banks due to their role in the financial crisis that began in 2007, in addition to the introduction of the Payment Council's seven-day switching service which makes it easy for consumers to change current accounts, means competition is increasing.