For the past decade, supermarkets have been expanding their territory to include dry cleaning and photofinishing services, pharmacies and garden centres. Along the way, they dipped their t’es into financial services by introducing atms.

So it was only a matter of time before they began opening bank branches in-store.

While there is a trend toward financial institutions opening in-store banks in grocery stores in the u.s. and Great Britain, where Sainsbury has opened store-brand banking centres, the practice is not as widespread in Canada.

However, that’s changing.

Last year, Montreal’s Provigo announced it had penned a deal with National Bank of Canada wherein the bank would open counters in the company’s Maxi, Metro and Provigo stores across Quebec.

Now, Maxi & Co. has moved into the Ontario market and with it, the philosophy of offering banking services in its stores.

For this province, however, Maxi supermarkets will offer the services of Toronto-based Toronto-Dominion Bank. td recently opened its first in-supermarket branch in Provigo’s first store in the Ontario market ­ its Maxi & Co. store in Mississauga, Ont.

td will also be opening counters in the company’s two planned stores, to be opened shortly in Oakville, Ont. and Scarborough, Ont.

The question is: will other supermarkets ­ particularly industry pacesetter Loblaws ­ follow suit with in-store banks of their own?

According to Chuck Taylor, partner with Ernst and Young’s financial services practice, the trend toward in-store banking is only going to grow, and since one-stop shopping is a deliberate part of Loblaws’ strategy, a bank would be an obvious addition.

According to Taylor, Zehrs, owned by Loblaw Companies of Toronto, is now testing a cibc branch in one of its stores in Uxbridge, Ont. Similarly, Zehrs in Cambridge, Ont. is testing a Canada Trust branch, according to Mike Hosier, manager of self-service deployment at Canada Trust’s head office in London, Ont.

At press time, no one at Loblaw was available to comment on the tests.

Both Canada Trust and cibc are tied to Loblaws stores in that they provide financial services to the grocery chain through their atm machines.

Taylor says there are two advantages to opening banking counters in-store ­ customers get value-added services such as extended banking hours, the ability to make cash withdrawals, and the option to obtain investment, rrsp, loan, mortgage, and other banking information.

‘These banks are also not operated by banks in the traditional sense,’ says Jean Fleury, director of special projects for Montreal-based National Bank of Canada. Employees dress casually and are approachable and sales-oriented, he says.

Bev Heim-Myers, td’s manager of personal sales and service, says the bank-in-store concept gives the retailer the opportunity to offer shoppers an added convenience while offering the bank the opportunity to reach more potential customers.

She notes that banks are already seeing a behavioral change in customers who are planning to do their banking at the same time as they do their shopping.

Meanwhile, National Bank’s Fleury says that a number of large grocery chains across the country are keeping an eye on Provigo’s stores, with the intent of opening banks in their own stores.

A spokesperson for Loblaw says that if it’s a good idea, the chain will definitely do it ­ but better. ‘If we do do it, I’m sure we’ll put our own Loblaws spin on it,’ he says.