LONDON (ShareCast) - Money lender Cattles is hooking up with the Newcastle Building Society to provide online savings accounts for its customers, as part of its strategy to become less reliant on the wholesale loan market.

The sub-prime lender expects to be allowed to raise retail deposits later this year, with the new service slated to go live in November. Cattles is targeting around £1bn in deposits by 2010 for its retail banking arm.

The deal with the Newcastle Building Society is set to run for five years and was described by Cattles as “a key milestone” in its move towards diversifying its product range by accepting retail deposits.

“The launch of a new savings offering is an important step towards Cattles’ goal of offering a broader portfolio of financial products to UK consumers at the same time as diversifying the sources of funding available to the group,” said Robert East, banking director at Cattles.

The building society will be responsible for the management of all aspects of customer interaction, and will provide a number of support services to assist in the management of the customer database.

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