Canadian High Interest Savings Bank Accounts

I think your option two is probably more likely. I think they'll continue offering credit cards and may even launch more MasterCards, perhaps even Visas, now that they've sold their all-in-one chequing/mortgage account business. It's pretty cheap to offer high-interest savings accounts and no ATM cards now that they've pulled their own ATMs out of their stores.

Having said that, it will be interesting to see what they do. Canadian Tire I wouldn't be surprised to see them sell their prized credit cards business for the right price – perhaps even get out of banking altogether, again for the right price. They do both well – financial services and retail – but financial services lacks scale. Perhaps Wal-Mart Canada Bank might swoop in, buy up everything from Canadian Tire Bank and allow Canadian Tire to save face by offering Canadian Tire-branded credit cards issued by Wal-Mart Canada Bank with Canadian Tire paid a commission?

Cheers,
Doug

My guess would be that their credit cards are offered to all Canadians while their banking services are not offered in Quebec. Perhaps this is an attempt to reduce confusion among Quebecois.