Banking Law

Under the title "Wal-Mart Marches On," last November we profiled Wal-Mart's post-banking plan to capture retail financial services from traditional banks (and other financial service providers) through its partnerships with General Electric's Money Centers and Fiserv's CheckFreePay unit. Yesterday, the marching cadence increased to double-time.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will be opening another 500 Wal-Mart MoneyCenters this year. Wal-Mart has more than 25 stores located in the North Texas area alone.

As part of its current plan, Wal-Mart said MoneyCenters will be located in about 40 percent of Wal-Mart?s 3,763 stores nationwide, including 158 in Texas, according to a spokeswoman. A total of 102 stores in the Lone Star State will have a MoneyCenter by the end of 2011.

Love it or hate it, the Beast of Bentonville is becoming a force in retail financial services. Moreover, Wal-Mart's getting to expand at this rapid pace without dealing with growth-killing Sheila Bair and the rest of her crew at the FDIC. As everyone recalls, Ms. Bair slapped a moratorium on FDIC insurance for industrial bank charters when Wal-Mart filed an application and eventually stiff-armed Wal-Mart out of the realm of the FDIC-insured.

At the time, Wal-Mart expressed disappointment and community banks expressed joy. Now, Wal-Mart is going full blast forward, unimpeded by the gentle ministrations of FDIC examiners and social justice engineers like The Care Bair. Simultaneously, many community banks are being beaten about the head and torso by the FDIC and other federal banking regulators in ways that are making it difficult not only to make a buck, but, in many cases, even to survive.

Irony: it's often bittersweet.