Congress still looking for easy business targets


Going after Wal-Mart AGAIN

This is another example of going after a high visibility target for no reason except to score votes.

The meat is buried in the article, but look closely. Emphasis added.

Wal-Mart's application has attracted heightened attention in Washington from some members of Congress, consumer groups and banks that fear competing with the retail giant.

Some lobbyists and analysts, however, say the opposition is not surprising, given's Wal-Mart's size and the criticism it regularly receives from labor unions and other groups. Those sources say that if the FDIC follows statute, there is little reason why Wal-Mart's application should be denied when rival Target Corp. (TGT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) succeeded.

The Wal-Mart bid generated a record number of public comments and calls from Capitol Hill for the regulator to slow down its review. The FDIC, under Acting Chairman Martin Gruenberg, has agreed to hold public hearings on the application -- the agency's first formal public hearings on a bank application ever.

Wal-Mart has said it welcomes the public hearings.

Some groups, particularly banks, fear Wal-Mart will use its industrial bank as a base to offer a wider array of services in its branches.

Others who oppose Wal-Mart's application say the bank would violate the historic separation in the United States between banks and enterprises that do not engage primarily in finance. Still, other corporations have already set up industrial banks, such as General Electric (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Got that? Other companies have done exactly what Wal-Mart is proposing and no one came down on them. The real issue is that banks don't want to compete with a company that has the penetration that Wal-Mart has.

Which makes me wonder just how customer oriented they are. After all, setting up an industrial bank is more expensive than making an alliance. I'm sure that Wal-Mart explored it's options before deciding.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - March 10, 2006 at 05:02 PM  Tag


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