Wal-Mart to expand financial services
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Wednesday that it intends to open 1,000 Wal-Mart MoneyCenters and launch a reloadable prepaid Wal-Mart MoneyCard, in a major expansion of financial services the retailer provides to its base of low-income customers.
The company earlier this year withdrew an application with U.S. bank regulators to operate a specialty bank in the face of immense opposition from politicians, consumer groups and community banks.
While Wal-Mart had insisted it wanted to use the bank to save money by processing credit-card and check transactions internally, consumer groups and banks feared the retailer would eventually provide other retail banking services, leading to the demise of community banks.
After withdrawing the application, the retailer said it would focus on introducing new financial services, and Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart financial services, said the company would have “a lot of things that will be coming out this year.”
Wal-Mart currently has 225 MoneyCenters and intends to expand that number to 1,000 by the end of 2008. The retailer said the centers, which are geared toward customers who are “outside mainstream banking,” offer money services like check cashing, money orders, bill payment and money transfers.
It will also launch the Wal-Mart MoneyCard, a reloadable prepaid Visa, that it is rolling out nationally with GE Money and Green Dot. It said the card can be used at all locations where Visa is accepted and at automated teller machines.
