Wal-Mart May Be Eyeing Role in Retail Banking

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may be eyeing a larger role in banking than it has previously disclosed, according to lease details made public yesterday by a congressman who accused the world's largest retailer of hiding plans to become a retail bank.

Wal-Mart is seeking federal approval to open a limited-purpose bank for processing credit card and other payments. Its executives have pledged in testimony to regulators that they have no plans to open bank branches or start consumer lending.

Rep. Paul Gillmor, a republican from Ohio, a leader of congressional efforts to draw a strict line between commerce and banking, released a Wal-Mart e-mail detailing lease terms with banks that rent space for branches inside hundreds of Wal-Mart stores.

The terms reserve Wal-Mart's right to offer an array of future financial services in its stores.

The lease terms in the e-mail say Wal-Mart can offer future services including mortgages, consumer loans, home equity loans, investment, and insurance products and any other type of service or product that Wal-Mart might develop.

Wal-Mart said the e-mail was nothing new and reflected similar language it has used in leases with outside banks for at least five years.

Critics say the growth of industrial loan corporations could blur the line between banking and commerce, concentrate assets in the hands of a few big companies and stifle competition.