Wal-Mart Bank Bid Sets off a Debate

By Becky Yerak, Chicago Tribune

Last July, when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced plans to open an industrial bank in Utah, one might have thought the retail giant had just acquired the combination to the banking industry’s safe.

So up in arms is the banking industry that Wal-Mart Bank, as the proposed entity is dubbed, inspired more than 1,500 letters to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

“Typically, we receive one or two letters on a new bank, and many times we receive none,” an FDIC spokesman said.

But while bankers are concerned about being undercut by a Wal-Mart bank, other major corporations have already scooped up charters for so-called industrial loan company banks, or ILCs. They include Volkswagen, Pitney Bowes, General Motors, General Electric, BMW—and even retailer Target Corp.

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