The financing arm of French car manufacturer Renault is to enter the UK banking market with the launch of an easy-access savings account.
The UK launch of RCI Bank follows on from a series of similar launches in France, Germany and Austria over the last four years, where RCI Banque has hoovered up some 6.5 billion customer deposits.
The savings account is available exclusively through MoneySuperMarket with a Best Buy rate of 1.50% AER variable gross for the next two weeks. The launch comes at a time when as much as £160 billion could be sitting in savings accounts that pay 0.5% interest or lower.
Savers are protected under the French guarantee scheme, FGDR, up to the value of €100,000, slightly lower than the £85,000 limit provided by the UK scheme
Steve Gowler, CEO of RCI Bank, says: “We’re really excited about entering into the UK savings market, and importantly entering the market with an innovative and competitive product. Over the next 12 months we plan to follow this up with further product launches."
RCI Bank’s UK head office is in Watford and the customer service centre based in Newcastle offers seven day support. The group joins the swelling ranks of challenger banks bidding to take on the UK banking establishment with cut-price online and telephone-based accounts.