Wal-Mart Withdraws Application for Bank Approval

Wal-Mart withdrew it's application for an Industrial Loan Charter today. The retailer issued the following press release:


BENTONVILLE, Ark., March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wal-MartFinancial Services President Jane Thompson released the following statement today: "We notified the FDIC today that Wal-Mart has withdrawn the application we made in July 2005 for an Industrial Loan Company (ILC) charter. "This action follows January's FDIC decision to extend the moratoriumon a number of pending ILC applications. "Unlike dozens of prior ILC applications, Wal-Mart's has been surrounded by manufactured controversy since it was submitted nearly twoyears ago. At no stage did we intend to use the ILC to establish branchbanking operations as critics have suggested -- we simply sought to reduce credit and debit card transaction costs. "Wal-Mart's financial services already save customers over $245 milliona year so they can live better. Since the approval process is now likely totake years rather than months, we decided to withdraw our application tobetter focus on other ways to serve customers. We fully intend to continueto introduce new products and services that champion those who deserveconvenient, lower priced financial services."