Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Wal-Mart set to announce new financial services - MarketWatch

Wal-Mart set to announce new financial services - MarketWatch:

"Following up on a promise to bring financial services beyond its check-cashing,
express bill payments, money orders and money transfers to its customers, the
world's largest retailer is expected to roll out mortgages and home-equity loans
or lines of credit.
Wal-Mart also is likely to announce that it will
increase the number of stores in which it operates MoneyCenters , the
financial-services only counter, from the current 170.
The move comes on the
heels of the company's failed efforts to obtain a charter for an industrial loan
company, a version of a bank referred to as an ILC. Wal-Mart withdrew its
application with federal banking regulators in mid March after a backlash from
politicians and community banks fearful that the retailer would hurt the
small-banking industry. "


Sounds like they are going to be edging into the market of offering the services that they had planned on providing to their customers in the first place. What I read about their plans the first time around, was that they were planning on making banking services cheaper and easier for the public to use. If they hold true to this formula, it will benefit consumers, while I don't see it harming the big banks much. I think the market that Wal-Mart is going for is the market that doesn't use the big banks services anyways.

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