Wal-Mart Withdraws ILC Charter Application

Wal-Mart Financial Services President Jane Thompson released the following statement today: “We notified the FDIC today that Wal-Mart has withdrawn the application we made in July 2005 for an Industrial Loan Company (ILC) charter. This action follows January’s FDIC decision to extend the moratorium on a number of pending ILC applications. Unlike dozens of prior ILC applications, Wal-Mart’s has been surrounded by manufactured controversy since it was submitted nearly two years ago. At no stage did we intend to use the ILC to establish branch banking operations as critics have suggested -- we simply sought to reduce credit and debit card transaction costs. Wal-Mart’s financial services already save customers over $245 million a year so they can live better. Since the approval process is now likely to take years rather than months, we decided to withdraw our application to better focus on other ways to serve customers. We fully intend to continue to introduce new products and services that champion those who deserve convenient, lower priced financial services.”