Wal-Mart expanding financial services

By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Wednesday it will open 1,000 financial services centers in its stores and roll out a prepaid Visa debit card nationwide in a major push to sell more financial services to its lower-income shoppers.

The world's largest retailer said the expansion will help it reach the 73 million Americans who do not have bank accounts or access to credit cards, and are largely ignored by banks.

"I think in the financial industry this is a game-changer for the market that people aren't serving," said Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart financial services, at the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit in New York.

The moves come three months after Wal-Mart withdrew an application with U.S. bank regulators to operate a specialty bank after it faced immense opposition. Instead, it said it would focus on launching new financial services in its stores.

Thompson told the Reuters Summit that the retailer hopes to announce two new products before the year is over and has about four products "in the hopper."

She said it was too early to decide whether Wal-Mart will offer mortgages and home equity lines of credit, but she said Wal-Mart is exploring ways to partner with a bank to link a savings account to the prepaid Visa card.

"We're working on it," she said, although the efforts are "very early."

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