Canada’s Rogers Communications has filed papers with its federal government to incorporate as a bank in Toronto under the country’s Bank Act, according to CBC News.
However, a Rogers Bank, should it get approval, wouldn’t be servicing home loans any time soon. The entity would focus on mobile payment services and consumer credit.
Rogers would be free to pursue a niche credit card opportunity and would not be the first retailer to follow this path. Companies such as Sears, Loblaws, HBC and Canadian Tire have their own banking arms.
Canada currently has almost two dozen domestic banks (known as Schedule I banks under the Bank Act) and an even larger number of divisions of foreign-owned banks licensed to operate in Canada.
The move may be driven by margins and the desire to grab some of the revenue from transactions taking place on the company’s network from which it is seeing little to no revenue itself.
