Wal-Mart Expands Financial ServicesOfferings

BENTONVILLE, Ark.. - (07/13/06) – Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores,which is fighting opponents over its application for a bankingcharter, has begun offering etail financial services through itsown branded ATMs. Wal-Mart, which has insisted it has no plans toenter retail banking if its industrial loan company charter isapproved but would use the charter just to process billions ofdollars of transactions, said it is testing ATMs to make servicessuch as ordering gift cards more convenient. Wal-Mart owns andoperates the cash machines in its test program, except where statelaw stipulates it has to partner with a financial institution. TheWal-Mart ATMs bear a green ‘Wal-Mart Money Center’logo. Wal-Mart already operates one of the nation’s largestchains of check-cashing operations, and also provides a variety ofloans at hundreds of its stores, even while leasing out in-storebranches to hundreds of credit unions and banks.