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Home Front Economy
WalMart Threatens US Banking System!
2006-03-10
Congressmen: Wal-Mart threatens US payment system
A group of congressmen on Friday said an industrial bank owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, could threaten the stability of the U.S. financial system and drive community banks out of business.

In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters, a group of more than 30 congressmen asked the bank regulator to reject Wal-Mart's application to open a bank in Utah.

"Wal-Mart's plan, to have its bank process hundreds of billions in transactions for its own stores, could threaten the stability of the nation's payments system," the lawmakers wrote. "Given Wal-Mart's massive scope and international dealings, it is not possible to rule out a financial crisis within the company that could damage the bank and severely disrupt the flow of payments throughout the financial system."

The group included Ohio Democrats Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Rep. Tim Ryan, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Neil Abercrombie and California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez. A complete list of signatures was not immediately available.

Wal-Mart is trying to open an industrial bank to handle electronic payment processing. Industrial banks are state-chartered and state-regulated, and fall under the supervision of the FDIC. Commercial companies may own them because federal laws that bar non-financial companies from engaging in banking activities do not classify them as banks.
Prolly time to close 'em all down and shoot everyone in the Walton family.
Posted by:.com

#12  Works for me, Rafael.

Everything unions were started for is now US labor law. The only thing the unions are "good" for anymore is protecting slack-offs, inflating wages (and therefore the cost of the end-product to consumers) in some industries far beyond their true worth, using the money skimmed (often unwantedly) from their members' paychecks for their own political and personal gain, and general corruption.

Pfui on the lot of them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2006-03-10 16:40  

#11  and they know how to control costs

Union busting being one of the ways.
Posted by: Rafael   2006-03-10 16:30  

#10  There is definitely bigger money than Mom-n-Pop Bankers-n-Kettle Corn at play here.

The big banks must be nervous as all get-out. WalMart has worked much harder at gaining their customers' trust, and they know how to control costs. Which is something MBNA has no clue about.

Go Walmart!
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-03-10 16:21  

#9  Prolly time to close 'em all down and shoot everyone in the Walton family.

Especially John-Boy. He always creeped me out.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-03-10 16:21  

#8  The Real Banks[tm]have been screwing the general population now for decades. Back before the Carter inflation kicked in, most states had usury laws with fix limits on the amount of interest that banks could charge. When the inflation rate climbed to 8%, the banks said they couldn't issue credit anymore and demanded the states drop the laws. The state governments paniced and did just that instead of modifying them to make the rate adjusted by the Prime [Interest Rate] of the Federal Reserve. Rates climbed to 21%. Then the Fed rate dropped and continued to drop, but the banks keep the credit rates high. Sucking vast capital out of the average household and into their pockets.

When Pappa Bush talked about doing something about it, the bankers/investors dropped a load on the Stock Market panicing the old guy who retreated. He was more interested in reelection than fighting by sending the SEC and DoJ after the wanks with RICO. A day or two of seizures [of personal assets under RICO] and playing with the market like that would have ended. Now the Bankers whine that they have to cover bad credit by consumers [rather individuals or other countries], but they are the one's making the loans, and the rest of us carry the consequences. The public is tagged with the liability not the lender. Have you ever seen a major institution report real loses and waved a stock payment? When you give credit cards to college students who have no assets, that should be the bank's problem not the other consumers.

Yep, get Walmart in there. The old saying 'sick a dog on a dog' comes to mind. Wish them luck.
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453   2006-03-10 16:10  

#7  Wasn't it Wal-Mart who led the charge to get those POS payment-processing stations to recognize debit cards so they wouldn't have to pay Visa/MC charges? E.g. if you enter your PIN, it's a debit card transaction and no charge to Wal-Mart. If you sign the receipt, it's a credit card transaction and Visa/MC get their cut.
Posted by: Dar   2006-03-10 15:38  

#6  Finally a challenge to the British oligarchy that controls the worlds financial institutions that Lyndon LaRouche was talking about.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2006-03-10 14:08  

#5  I'd bet Walmart's more interested in a reliable payment processor -- and skimming the float -- than anything else.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2006-03-10 13:20  

#4  I thought this was precious:

"In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters..."

Bet there was no strain attached, lol.
Posted by: .com   2006-03-10 13:09  

#3  Also: Heh.

Go Walmart! Bring the banking system to its knees! The last thing Walmart needs is to have its customers, ya know, unable to *pay* for anything.
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-03-10 13:04  

#2  The group included Ohio Democrats Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Rep. Tim Ryan, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Neil Abercrombie and California Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez. A complete list of signatures was not immediately available.

I think they are 'saying' it's the local banks, but I bet the big money is coming from MBNA/Citigroup etc. There is mondo dollars in point-of-purchase fees (ie the credit card terminals, and WalMart wants to pwn them)
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-03-10 12:59  

#1  and drive community banks out of business.

No tear here. It was the 'community' banks and savings and loans who brought on the Great S&L failure of the mid-80s. Even though they were not federally insured, the taxpayers ended up paying nearly a half a trillion dollars in the bailout. It was a prime time crying game with MSM focused upon some 70 year old farmer losing his stead or some 80 year old widow who put her savings in a non-FDIC bank/S&L. Real reporting was not to be found on how the banks and S&Ls had engaged in land speculation and unsound loans got them in the hole in the first place.

Get the names of the 30 congressmen and check if the local owners of the banks had made contributions to election committees. Usually the case at that level. Why would I be surprised?
Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453   2006-03-10 12:41  

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