I have reason to believe there are one or two US retailers with financial services squarely in their sights, and are looking to pull a Tesco in the US. Some retailers might just score a bulls-eye with their recession resistant business model and large store
networks. I see there have been some tentative attempts by Carphone et al.
Having a few hundred stores, and millions of existing customers gives somewhat of an edge for companies like Target.
Trust is important. I could quote endlessly from a number of fine surveys confirming that trust has literally gone out the window for banks - and corporate America/everywhere is close behind.
Some retailers still have trust. I know my wife thinks that a certain large retailer is very trustworthy because their economically priced clothes last longer than a growing teenager needs to grow out of them.
Can this be translated into financial services trust?
I think we'll see some efforts in this area and those who can make their services relevant to their customer base and flexible enough to cater for the young with mobiles will see some enormous rewards.
I'm up for it.