Credit card discussions with Tesco stopped due to impending sale

DfE will now 'continue to engage' with Barclays

Discussions about how to ensure Island residents can access credit cards are continuing with other jurisdictions which are also facing difficulties.

The enterprise minister told Tynwald this week that government has been in contact with counterparts in Jersey and Guernsey.

Tim Johnston also confirmed that earlier conversations with Tesco about the possibility of making credit cards, and other financial products, available have stopped.

This, he said, was due to Tesco Bank’s decision to pull out of the market and sell its financial services business to Barclays.

The deal is expected to complete later this year if approved by regulators. 

Tesco credit cards were withdrawn for Island residents in November 2022.

Mr Johnston was quizzed in the court by Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse who wanted to know what contact he’d had with the retailer.

He was told the Department for Enterprise had been in ‘regular contact’ with senior executives at Tesco following its decision to buy out all nine Shoprite stores last year.

Those conversations, Mr Johnston said, focused on jobs, local producers, investment in and the relaunch of stores, and credit cards.

However the minister told Tynwald that his department would now ‘continue to engage’ with Barclays instead about the possible reintroduction of credit cards for new applicants: