Rogers Canada not happy just gouging wireless and Internet customers it now wants to be a bank

In Canada there are three or four major players when it comes to mobile and broadband access and it would seem that one of them is not happy just gouging its customers for that access but now wants to become a bank as well.

With over 7 million customers Rogers Canada is one of the biggest in the country and it announced today that it has applied to the federal government to open a bank called Rogers Bank.

According to the official filing on September 3rd the application stated that “Notice is hereby given, pursuant to subsection 25(2) of the Bank Act (Canada), that Rogers Communications Inc. intends to apply to the Minister of Finance for the issue of letters patent incorporating a bank under the Bank Act (Canada) primarily focused on credit, payment and charge card services.”

Rogers spokesperson Carly Suppa stated “We have no plans to become a full-service deposit-taking financial institution… The license, if granted, would give us the flexibility to pursue a niche credit card opportunity to our customers should this make sense at a future date”.

via MobileSyrup

Now anyone who thinks that this is a good idea is short a few bricks in my opinion. Rogers already controls wireless, broadband, cable, and telephone service; plus they are planning a heavy move into NFC (near field communication) payments.

So the idea that they want to become a bank as well should be raising the hairs on the back of our collective necks.