Walmart Moves Into Checking Account Business

Walmart will introduce a checking account business with Green Dot’s GoBank operation. The two companies disclosed the arrangement:

GoBank is the award-winning bank account available at select Walmart locations and made to be used on your mobile phone, with no overdraft or penalty fees ever. With GoBank, members have full access and control of their money from participating Walmart locations, as well as their iPhone, iPod Touch or Android device, and can withdraw cash from more than 42,000 fee-free ATMs in the U.S. People can sign up for a GoBank account by purchasing a GoBank starter kit at participating Walmart stores, and can manage their account on their mobile phone or computer.

Walmart still may not be a bank. However, it is starting to look more and more like one. And its pitch to get consumers to use its checking system has merit:

“Walmart customers want easier ways to manage their everyday finances and increasingly feel they just aren’t getting value from traditional banking because of high fees,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Walmart U.S. “Adding the GoBank checking account to our shelves means our customers will have exclusive access to one of the most affordable, inclusive and easy-to-use checking accounts in the industry. GoBank gives our customers yet another option as to how they manage their money. When our customers have options, they win.”

Call it a smart way to use bank fees against banks, which are the primary enemy of Walmart’s new product. To further bedevil banks, the new accounts will be FDIC insured.

The government may want to shut Walmart out of the bank business permanently, but it has found a way around the roadblock.

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