CANADA -- Dutch grocery conglomerate Royal Ahold, which owns several U.S. supermarket chains, has inked a deal with Amicus Financial, the electronic banking unit of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, to provide online financial services, according to a report in CNET News.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Starting in the fall, customers will have access to Amicus accounts via the Web, telephone or ATM machines, said Jan Hol, a spokesman for Ahold, which operates 1,300 U.S. supermarkets mostly on the East Coast and also owns a majority share in online grocer Peapod.
Hol said the Amicus deal calls for Ahold to install small bank branches, or "pavilions," inside each of its supermarkets. The company has leased space to other banks, such as Chase Bank, but most of those deals will expire within the next three years. When they do, Ahold will replace the outgoing bank pavilions with Amicus-operated ones.
Amicus delivers online banking services to companies that then offer them under their own brand name. Besides Peapod, the banking services will be offered to Ahold's five brick-and-mortar U.S. grocery chains including Giant Food Stores, Stop & Shop and Tops Markets. Peapod will eventually also offer banking services, Hol said.
Amicus also operates pavilions in Safeway and Winn-Dixie stores for Safeway SELECT Bank and Marketplace Bank, respectively.
The pavilions have no tellers to take deposits, although one or two customer service employees are typically on hand to help customers open new accounts, examine banking products or find their way around. Many transactions take place at an ATM; a networked PC workstation is also provided for customers to access online banking accounts. A telephone is provided so the customer can get in touch with the call center.
