An Ohio representative has recently released an e-mail that he said suggests Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s ambitious plans to enter into consumer banking may extend beyond what the retail giant had previously revealed to regulators. The information, in the form of an e- mail message sent by an employee of Wal-Mart Stores, suggested that the company was preparing to offer its own banking products.
The e-mail suggested that the retailer has included in tenant leases letting it reserve the right to offer a variety of financial services, including mortgages and home equity loans. The information indicates a clear shift from Wal-Mart’s earlier insistence that it was not concerned in branch banking, but was aiming to use the bank as a way to save money by internalizing credit-card and check transactions.
Wal-Mart has submitted an application to the US regulators for approval, and if regulators clear the application it would allow the company to operate a specialty bank known as an industrial loan company. However, Wal-Mart has said that the e-mail was nothing new and reflected similar language it has used in leases with outside banks for at least five years.
Nevertheless, Wall Street Journal has reported, ‘Wal-Mart Stores Inc., underscoring its continuing push into financial services, has quietly renegotiated the terms of leases with a number of banks operating in its stores, giving Wal-Mart itself the explicit right to offer mortgages, home-equity lines of credit and consumer loans.’
