WAL-MART FILES TO PURCHASE BANK

ALISON MAXWELL

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (FNS) -- Wal-Mart Stores here said last week it has found a solution to the difficulties of attracting in-store banks in certain geographic areas for supercenters and other retail operations.

It plans to buy its own bank.

Wal-Mart last week applied to the Office of Thrift Supervision in Washington to acquire an Oklahoma federal savings bank.

In the filing, Wal-Mart proposed to buy Federal BankCenter, Broken Arrow, Okla., for an undisclosed amount.

According to the filing, Wal-Mart plans to "build its understanding" of the banking business for one year prior to offering financial services to its customers. During the second phase of its three-year strategy the bank would open full-service branch offices in five Wal-Mart supercenters to test new products and services.

If the test branches prove successful, Wal-Mart said, it would expand to more markets over the next year.

"The rollout of new products will have the goal of encouraging unbanked and underbanked Wal-Mart customers to use basic banking services," the company said in the filing.

"The purchase of Federal BankCenter will allow Wal-Mart to continue its pursuit of identifying new opportunities to fulfill the needs of its customers," the company said in the filing. "Large banking institutions have not always provided the full range of cost-effective services to the people who need those services the most. The purchase of FBC will allow Wal-Mart to address those needs."