Long gone are the days that banks just lent you money, or provided a safe haven for your cash.

Intense competition has forced financial institutions to re-invent themselves over the last few years and offer customers an ever expanding range of services.

Forget cash, you can now book a holiday at your bank

Today they do anything from insuring valuable possessions to booking a holiday in the sun.

But now First Direct, the telephone banking arm of Midland Bank, has come up with something far more bizarre.

Called Octopus, the new business idea may conjure up images of selling eight legged sea food. But in some ways the service is even more strange than its name suggests.

Answering machine

For a fee customers can phone up First Direct, and ask them to find the answer to any question. The bank has a team of researchers who will endeavour to do anything from finding out the name of the artist who recorded the annoying tune on the soap powder advertisement, to finding your nearest launderette.

The idea is designed to appeal to those overworked First Direct customers who have not got time, or perhaps the patience, to do the research for themselves.

Some of the requests have been truly weird and wonderful.

Lighting up his life

One customer wanted to buy Boeing 747 landing lights and purple runway lights to illuminate his garden - a scheme which could have dangerous consequences for those that live under a flight path.

Others wanted to know how to be buried at sea and where to find an 'Alien in a Jar'.

Penny Marshall, head of marketing innovation at First Direct, admits that it is a strange business for a bank to be involved in. But she claims that it is yet another way to reach out to customers.

"There is more and more choice (of information) but it is getting harder and harder to edit that choice. We thought people were becoming bewildered ... and we wanted to find a way of simplifying people's lives," she told BBC News Online.

The service does not come cheap. A one-off enquiry costs £5, or customers can pay £15 a month to ask as many questions as they like. And First Direct are coy about just how many people use the service. At the moment the bank only employs 10 researchers for the scheme.

Branching out

But First Direct's initiative is indicative of the pattern developing across the financial service industry. It is not the only bank trying to branch out from its roots.

Lloyds will help you find an emergency plumber if your pipes spring a leak, and NatWest has launched a service which uses databases to get information on, for example, the travel or the weather.

With new entrants pouring into the financial services market, such as Virgin and the supermarket chains, there are too many companies chasing too little money.

Having more fun

The traditional High Street banks have had no choice but to adapt, and seek out new ways of making a living. And they are looking for new ways to exploit their brand names and valuable customer bases.