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Not satisfied with prepaid cards from Green Dot or Bluebird Accounts via American Express, Wal-Mart's march into the banking business is now all the way into checking account territory.
Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, is teaming up with Green Dot, known for its prepaid payment cards, to supply checking accounts to almost anyone over 18 who passes an ID check.
Daniel Eckert, senior vice president at Walmart, said on Tuesday that the accounts would be available nationwide by the end of October. The accounts are intended to be low-cost alternatives to traditional bank checking accounts, with no fees for overdrafts or bounced checks and no minimum account balance.
In comparison, a basic checking account at Citibank charges $12 if a check is returned and $34 for overdrafts.
The new accounts from Green Dot, called GoBank, will cost $8.95 a month if they have direct deposits totaling less than $500 a month. Mr. Eckert said that most people on Social Security or fixed pensions would qualify.
GoBank, as the service is known, is part of Walmart’s long-running push into financial services for people with little or no access to traditional banking.
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Walmart has been eyeing financial services for some time. Two years ago, the company announced a partnership with American Express to offer a prepaid card and debit accounts. Retailers like Target and 7-Eleven also offer prepaid cards.
But the new Walmart initiative will be the first full-blown, off-the-shelf checking account. To help attract customers, Walmart and Green Dot will forgo a screening system many banks use to vet potential customers and rely instead on a proprietary system. The model is expected to allow almost any consumer who passes an identification check to open an account in minutes, according to Green Dot.
In the past, Walmart has tried to secure a federal bank charter to become a deposit-taking bank, but abandoned that effort in 2007 in the face of opposition from the banking industry. Since then, the retailer has assembled an array of services that could be offered without a charter, as well as partnerships with financial service companies like Green Dot.
Five years ago, we discussed how well Wal-Mart was adapting to the stonewalling by the FDIC of its attempt to start or buy an industrial bank. One benefit was that Franken-Dodd's "study of the need for industrial bank charter" may have presaged the demise of that particular charter, making Wal-Mart sorry that it got what it wished for. But there was more to it than merely the form of the charter that it was denied.
It's interesting that Wal-Mart, by not being in the banking business, is side-stepping the public relations backlash that is tainting other bankers who had nothing to do with the causes of the current crisis, such as community banks that are dropping like lawyers on a dove hunt with Dick Cheney. Instead, Wal-Mart is using the avenue open to it (not ideal, but workable) to cement its relationship as a low-cost provider of financial services to working class Americans. The Beast of Bentonville refuses to be tamed.
Wal-Mart didn't get to be a retail "beast" by backing down when confronted. When denied entry through one door, it has relentlessly worked on finding other doors, and then opening them wide. I simply don't see them stopping. As a consequence, of course, lower income citizens who form Wal-Mart's core customer base and who have traditionally had less access to traditional banking services are being "served," but in a beneficial way. Therefore, whether or not bankers are thrilled, the same FDIC that once effectively barred Wal-Mart from the banking business ought to be standing and applauding these latest efforts. Or, at the very least, a squatting ovation seems in order.
