CBA takes 25 percent stake in two NBN retail service providers

CBA is making a surprise play in the Australia broadband market, taking stakes in More Telecom and Tangerine and using its banking app to try to persuade customers to switch their provider.

The bank said on Thursday it had entered a “new strategic partnership” with sister companies More Telecom and Tangerine, and acquired “a 25 percent ownership stake in both."

It will use the partnership to “offer discounted NBN and broadband services” to banking customers, mostly by recommending a provider switch through the CommBank app.

“The average monthly cost of internet in Australia is one of the most expensive in the world, and we are uniquely positioned to help customers manage these costs,” CBA’s group executive for retail banking services Angus Sullivan said.

“We will do this by utilising our technology to provide personalised offers via the CommBank app to those customers we know will benefit from switching broadband providers.”

The bank did not say what business logic it would employ to profile customers of other RSPs and target them with broadband offers to induce churn.

It did say, however, that in the future, bank customers may also be able to “view their NBN or broadband plan, usage and upcoming bills” in the CommBank app as well.

The move into NBN extends a capability that CBA has been building out over the past couple of months that aims to bring a range of third-party offers into the CommBank app.

So far, the bank has integrated e-commerce deals as well as deals on electricity, so adding discounted internet services into that mix is perhaps a logical extension.

It also builds on a broader strategy by the bank to position its platforms as a way for customers to find money or benefits they perhaps didn’t know about or were qualified to receive.

Sullivan said CBA is “reimagining banking for our customers, creating more value for them, putting more money back in their pockets, and helping them save money by exposing them to new ways of doing things and new quality products and services.”

More Telecom and Tangerine co-founder Andrew Branson said the partnership help the retail service providers (RSPs) capture market share.