Just nine months after its launch announcement, Swiss retail giant Coop announces that it is shutting down its banking product (Finews). The news was a surprise because:
- Nine months is rather a short time for retail giant to get relevant insights
- The announcement in October 2023 made it appear that Coop is pretty confident in its financial service plans
- Coop shared a number of partners (incl. insurances) whose products were never being launched
On the other hand, the announcement was not a surprise, because:
- The product was hardly ‘embedded’, but rather a stand alone banking offering
- It is never easy to build an embedded finance product, but retailers face a number of challenges
- There was little to no progress in adding new financial products besides the bank account and card offering.
Overall, it seems that the move to re-enter the world of financial services was either not well planned or commitment from top level management was not in place or has shifted (Money Today; German).
