Sainsbury's, the British grocery giant, agreed to sell its banking business to lender NatWest, which will receive both the customer assets and £125 million in cash.
Why it matters Sainsbury's becomes the latest retailer to reverse course on offering financial services to customers, deciding that the competitive challenges were larger than the customer loyalty rewards.
Just four months ago, fellow British grocer Tesco offloaded its bank to Barclays.
By the numbers: NatWest says it will add around 1 million customers and £2.6 billion in customer deposits.
It also will assume £2.5 billion in gross customer assets, including £1.4 billion of unsecured personal loans and £1.1 billion of credit card balances.
Go deeper, per Bloomberg:"The UK was among the first to embrace open banking technology, which was meant to induce more competition for lenders by making it easier for consumers to switch providers. Even with that effort, big banks Barclays and Lloyds have been among the largest beneficiaries of people switching accounts."
