Wal-Mart to commoditize banking?

Although Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) gave up the fight to run an internal banking operation that would have saved the company millions in transaction and other costs, the retailer's true intentions may yet be coming through after all. The company's recent Visa debit card announcement makes me think that Wal-Mart, darn it, will get in the banking business for consumers some how, some way. It just won't be an FDIC-insured banking institution.

Does Wal-Mart want to take a piece of the $36 billion first-quarter profit that the banking industry saw (fourth highest total ever)? Why would it not? The finance industry is so incredibly profitable that any retailer with the scale of Wal-Mart (huge, but with margins that aren't that huge) would be dumb not to look at new ways to generate profit growth. Who better than the world's largest retailer where customers come to in drives 24 hours a day?

Well, that notion doesn't sit right with the U.S. banking industry (nor should it), which fears the "commoditization of banking" if Wal-Mart enters the personal banking domain. What else is new? Wal-Mart has moved into many industries to toss out competition in price, only to find that "what goes around comes around" as customers now are increasingly seeking nicer alternatives with more value-added than what Wal-Mart can provide. Should the banking industry be worried? As long as the banking industry continues to innovate, Wal-Mart will prove to be little threat. Well, at least initially.