Wal-Mart to launch banks in Mexico

Wal-Mart to launch banks in Mexico

Retailing market giants Wal-Mart are already the largest retail chain stores in Mexico. The company is now aiming to enter the country’s booming consumer-loan market by opening their own bank branches in the country.

The company has faced massive opposition to their plans to start banking operations in the domestic market of United States. However, they would gain from Mexico’s efforts to open the financial services industry to low-income clients, which is often ignored by the existing banking companies in the country.

Mexican Finance Secretary has already approved five new banks one of which is Wal-Mart de Mexico, or Walmex. Eduardo Solorzano, Walmex’s president spoke on their plans: “A large percentage of our clients do not have access to banking services.”

The company aims to start their operations in the second half of 2007 and they are likely to operate from their stores. Solorzano added: “This is a business meant to support the current retail operation and to complement the services we offer at our stores.”