Groups Push for Defeat of Wal-Mart Bank

All Wal-Mart wants to do, the global superstore has said repeatedly, is open a little bank in Utah to handle the 140 million credit, debit, and electronic check payments that Wal-Mart processes every year. What?s an industry behemoth got to do to make this dream a reality and convince critics of its pure intentions?

A lot, actually, at least according to a story today written by the Associated Press. And even then, the application?s success remains in doubt. Community and regional bank officials have presented an almost entirely unified front against Wal-Mart and its beleaguered bank application.

“There’s every reason to believe a Wal-Mart bank would operate with the same recklessness of its retail operation,” said William McNary, president of public interest group USAction, in the AP story. The fear uniting all these antagonists to Wal-Mart?s application all site the difficulty that small regional and local banks would have competing with a huge commercial entity like Wal-Mart. Of primary concern is Wal-Mart?s plan to sell high-interest certificates of deposit to investors; this, critics say, could quickly drain capital from local banks and force them to cut back on lending ? or close.

In a statement, Wal-Mart has said to its critics: “After three hearings and dozens of witnesses, one thing is clear — regulators can choose between approving a routine application or yielding to unfounded speculation and heated rhetoric about issues unrelated to our application.”

For now, it seems, regulators may see more power in yielding to unfounded speculation.

You can read more about this story at Groups Push for Defeat of Wal-Mart Bank.