Ready or Not: Here Comes Banco Wal*Mart

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.