Wal-Mart Expands into Prepaid Cards for the Unbanked

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Retail giant Wal-Wart Stores announced yesterday it plans to launch a Visa-branded prepaid card that targets customers without bank accounts, carving out a larger piece of the financial services market. The card will allow holders to make purchases, withdraw cash at ATMs and to pay bills. The move comes just two months after Wal-Mart abandoned plans for a U.S. banking charter, but as the company is building a chain of banks in Mexico and increasing its in-store offerings in the U.S. Wal-Mart already offers check-cashing, bill-payment and money-transfer services to more than 2 million customers each week and is building its own ATM network. Most of these products are offered at the company’s 170 MoneyCenters. Wal-Mart also offers full financial services at 1,500 of its stores through correspondent relationships with 300 banks and credit unions, which operate in-store branches.