M&S turns new pager in ‘relaxed’ banking

The branch has a more relaxed, feminine appearance than traditional high street banks, with a fuchsia colour scheme, handbag hooks and fresh flowers in vases designed by Sir Terence Conran, who is also behind the bank’s debit cards.

The branch at its flagship Marble Arch store in London is the first of 50 planned to open by the end of 2013, with opening hours mirroring the shops in which they are sited.

The Marble Arch store and its bank will regularly open until 11pm while the Olympics takes place. Its more usual hours are from 8am to 9pm from Monday to Saturday and from noon until 6pm on Sundays.

M&S said its banks will offer a pager service, meaning customers will not have to queue for an adviser to become available. Someone who wants an appointment will be given a pager and alerted as soon as a member of staff is free, so they can do their shopping or wait in the store’s cafe.

Any friends with the customer can also get a pager so they can browse while the customer completes their appointment.

The launch of a new player in the market comes as mainstream banks are battling to win back confidence in the wake of NatWest’s IT chaos and Barclays’ Libor-fixing scandal.

It also comes on the day it was revealed that Lloyds Banking Group has reached agreement to sell 632 branches to the Co-operative Group, tripling the size of the Co-op’s banking arm to nearly 1,000 branches to create a “real challenger bank”.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) stepped up the pressure on banks last week by launching a review into the personal current account market amid concerns over a lack of transparency and competition.

M&S’s first current account will charge fees of up to £240 a year in return for “transparent” terms and a range of in-store perks.

The company, which expects to create 500 UK jobs from the roll-out of the M&S Bank business, will offer mortgages at a later date.

Marks will open 15 more branches by the end of the summer including Meadowhall, Sheffield, and Pudsey, Leeds.