Acknowledging that it won't gain a bank charter anytime soon, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is pushing ahead with plans to carve out store space for its existing financial services, such as check cashing and money transfers, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The world's largest retailer by sales now operates MoneyCenters in 170 of its 4,000 U.S. stores, and it plans to increase the number. The shift takes those services from behind customer-service desks and offers them from a separate MoneyCenter counter, reported The Journal.
According to the paper, the focus on check cashing, bill payment and other nonbanking services is key for the Bentonville, Ark., retailer as it attempts to find ways to bolster its sales expansion amid a pullback in its construction of new U.S. stores. State-and-federal regulators have stymied Wal-Mart's attempts to get into banking. In March, Wal-Mart dropped its pursuit of a charter to operate an industrial-loan company, a form of bank, due to intense opposition and a federal moratorium on reviewing such applications.
Wal-Mart caters heavily to customers with little or no access to banking services, often described as the "unbanked" or "underbanked,"Â reported The Journal.
According to The Journal, Wal-Mart is among many U.S. companies serving the low-income and immigrant populations as big portions of their customer bases.
- New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants
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