Wal-Mart foes speak up

ARLINGTON, Va. — Wal-Mart's possible entrance into the banking world has no shortage of opponents, but former Utah Sen. Jake Garn said he doesn't want the retail giant's controversial reputation to hurt the state's industrial banking industry.

"Don't attack the whole industry because you don't like Wal-Mart," Garn said at Monday's public hearing on Wal-Mart's application for an industrial loan bank in Utah, where Wal-Mart would handle the 140 million credit, debit card and electronic check payments it processes each year.

More than a dozen organizations testified against Wal-Mart's application before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has never before held a public hearing on a bank application. The hearing continues today.

Many witnesses worried that if the government allowed Wal-Mart to begin banking, even in the limited terms outlined in its application, it would lead to a dangerous combination of commerce and banking by a company known for crushing competitors and driving out small businesses.

But Garn, speaking on behalf of the Utah Association of Financial Services, cautioned against such criticism and asked the hearing officers to keep in mind that they only need to examine the matter at hand.

"Let's not expand this beyond Wal-Mart's application," Garn said. He said if the company wanted to get into retail banking, which it has not applied for in Utah, it would still need an another approval from the state and the FDIC before it could move forward.

Garn said he asked Wal-Mart not to apply for the charter for fear some would use it to come out against industrial banks overall. It bothers him that opponents are blaming the whole industry for what Wal-Mart might do down the road or just out of opposition to the company for other policies.

"I wish they had never filed an application because they are causing exactly the trouble I thought they would," he said.

Utah has 33 industrial banks that hold more than $120 billion in assets, Garn said, noting the association neither supports nor opposes Wal-Mart's application.

"There is simply no evidence supporting the contentions made by the opponents of Wal-Mart's application that industrial banks violate long standing public policies, pose a risk to the banking system and the nation's economy, or that they are not adequately regulated by the FDIC," Garn said. "This is a clean, beneficial and successful industry that deserves to be left as is while the FDIC decides Wal-Mart's application on the merits of its specific plans."