Soon: Doc in a Box, Canned Brief Legal Work, and Wally Morgue:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. this week applied to organize a Utah industrial bank.
The retail giant already offers credit cards, money orders, money transfers and check-cashing services at its more than 3,500 stores nationwide. Setting up a Utah bank will allow the company to also process credit-card transactions instead of turning them over to third-party processors.
But many bankers outside Utah fear the move will allow Wal-Mart to further expand into personal banking, in which case their businesses could be harmed in the same way grocery and hardware stores get squeezed when a Wal-Mart opens nearby.
"Who knows what their business plan is for the long term," said Dale Leighty, who sits on the executive committee of the Independent Community Bankers of America. "If they eventually decide to try and expand into the consumer banking business, we don't think it will be good for anyone."
Wal-Mart's pending Utah application represents the company's latest attempt in a five-year effort to get into banking. Previous plans to buy financial institutions in California and Oklahoma and to partner with a bank in Canada were thwarted either by federal or state legislators.
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