Rogers eyes financial services as next growth area
Posted September 6, 2011 6:09 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Rogers Communications Inc. is looking to expand beyond the telecom business by starting up a financial services arm that would focus on credit, payment and credit card services.
Toronto-based Rogers, parent of Citytv, has told the federal finance department in a filing that the wireless service provider will apply to become a financial institution called Rogers Bank.
There are no plans to expand beyond that area into a full-service deposit-taking bank, a Rogers spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
“We routinely explore opportunities to strengthen our position as a leader and innovator in the communications industry…,” Rogers spokeswoman Carly Suppa said. “The licence, if granted, would give us the flexibility to pursue a niche credit card opportunity to our customers should this make sense at a future date.””
Iain Grant, managing director for market research and technology firm SeaBoard Group, said Rogers could be positioning itself to become a leader in mobile money transfers.
That would enable Canadians to store credit in their cellphones, which could be used to make payments and money transfers, Grant said.
“The next big thing in mobile is money transfer, whether that’s me paying for a subway pass or a parking meter, or me sending you money or me sending money back home,” Grant said.
“Money transfer is where the cellphone companies stand to make their next trillion dollars.”
The order to create Rogers Bank would need to proceed through the Bank Act’s normal application review process and the finance minister.
Suppa said the approvals process could take more than a year.
