Subscribe to Updates in Financial & Business Services

RSS By Email

RSS By RSS

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

Subscribe in Bloglines


The Expertise Imperative and Compliance Technology
Access to a diverse array of specialized expert inputs drives superior decisions in every organizational context: within corporations, by investors and consultancies, and within nonprofits. When decision makers are confident of their decision inputs, they can respond more quickly and creatively to challenges and opportunities.Learn more about GLG's Compliance Framework


This page may include content provided by Council Members, your access to which is subject to the Terms of Use.
Find Out More

February 25, 2008

Ready or Not: Here Comes Banco Wal*Mart

Analysis of: Wal-Mart Gets Its Bank - in Mexico | money.cnn.com
This analysis is solely the work of the author. It has not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
Analysis By:
Bill Bradway, Founder & Managing DirectorBill Bradway
Founder & Managing Director, Bradway Research, LLC
Implications: In November 2007, Wal-Mart de México (WMT) opened its first consumer bank, Banco Wal*Mart, in Toluca – an industrial town near Mexico City. The company plans to launch 80 more branches by the end of 2008. Will this initiative be successful? Will the established Mexican banking community suffer at the hands of Banco Wal*Mart? What will this initiative mean for Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), the bank’s new primary core banking and IT supplier?

Analysis:

Wal-Mart withdrew its application for a US banking charter in 1Q2007. While the retailer will have a different game plan for US banking and payments, the rest of the world is still fair game for its banking aspirations. From a demographic perspective, the emerging markets in Latin America are among the most promising for Wal-Mart's banking ambitions.

1. Wal-Mart starts out with a significant presence as Mexico's biggest retailer with 668 stores. Wal-Mart's goal is to attract the unbanked customers from the lower income market in Mexico. For example, less than 25 percent of Mexican households have savings accounts.

2. So far, so good, as Banco Wal*Mart management estimates that about 40% of the new banking clients who have signed up at dedicated desks in the store since the bank's November 2007 launch have never had a bank account of any kind.
 
3. Banco Wal*Mart is applying its retail knowhow to its bank, which is open for business seven days a week from 8 AM to 10 PM. Telephone banking is available 24x7, 365 days a year. The bank has also launched an information centric website to prepare for online banking services in the future.

4. Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) was selected by Banco Wal*Mart to provide core banking and card processing solutions. This deployment went live when the bank opened for business in November 2007. FIS has to be looking at several levels of upside from this relationship.


Report a Concern

More GLG News in
Financial & Business Services

Most Popular:
Source Article | Expert Analyses
 

GLG News: What Experts Think Is Important





Analytics


Generated at 2008-11-20T21:45:39.363