Tesco is poised to roll out personal finance desks in about 200 of its Extra superstores after buying Royal Bank of Scotland’s 50 per cent stake in Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) for £950 million.

The grocer is testing a TPF “store” at its Extra shop at Silverburn, Glasgow.

Tesco finance and strategy director Andrew Higginson, who will relinquish his position to become chief executive of Tesco’s retailing services operation, said the Silverburn pilot is “not a traditional bank, but more of an advisory branch. It has worked well for us”.

He said: “Our bigger stores can carry a physical presence for Tesco Personal Finance so we will start with the Extra stores, of which we have around 200.”

Higginson said the acquisition reflects Tesco’s strategy to expand its services offer. The grocer believes services could deliver profits of£1 billion a year – more than double last year’s profits of just under£400 million. He would not be drawn on how long it would take to achieve this, but said he expected it would be “during my tenure”.

Higginson will lead the services team and has recruited Benny Higgins, who previously worked at RBS and HBoS, as chief executive of TPF.

Iain Clink – a former TPF chief executive – has been appointed TPF finance director. Tesco has started the search for Higgin-son’s replacement.

Discount grocer Netto is to launch ATMs in selected UK stores from this week, in partnership with Alliance & Leicester.

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