Monday, March 19- Local/State/National Affairs

Monday, March 19

I recently became aware that Walmart was looking to open their own internal bank. When I first heard this, I did not think anything positive, for Walmart has always been known as a company that would do anything to make money, where I'm from anyway. This announcement brought the company negative attention, and was affecting their sales. An article from the Boston Globe reported this story on Saturday, the 17th, entitled "Wal-Mart Cancels Plans to Open its Own Bank." It begins, stating, "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. scrapped plans to open its own bank, ending a two-year dispute that roiled financial services companies that feared direct competition from the world's largest retailer." This would have had a very negative impact on the economy for the people, for Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer, and perhaps could afford different benefits to its customers than private owned, local, financial service companies. This means that more people would maybe enroll in Wal-Mart's banking system, giving them even more power globally in the economic world, which is not a good thing. Wal-Mart does not do much good for the world with the money the company makes, at least in my opinion. I never hear of them giving much money to charity, other than hear and there around Christmastime. What would be our benefit in the long run, with giving Wal-Mart power over our money? Sheila Bair, chairman of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. stated in an interview that "Wal-Mart made a wise
decision." I agree, and it is better off for everyone for Wal-Mart to remain a retail company. They don't have any business in the banking industry.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/03/17/wal_mart_cancels_plan_to_open_its_own_bank/