Is Wal-Mart starting a banking stampede?

A community banking group is calling Wal-Mart's application to start an industrial bank the beginning of a "stampede" by retailers through the banking business' back door, as evidenced by Home Depot's announcement that it wants to acquire a Utah industrial bank.

But the state's chief bank regulator says a few industrial banks does not a galloping frenzy make, nor do they signal a broken banking system.

Home Depot announced Tuesday that it had agreed to buy EnerBank USA, a Salt Lake-based industrial bank that provides home improvement loans to contractors. The home improvement retailer said the deal is part of a strategy to grow its business with contractors and stressed — like Wal-Mart — that it has no intention of getting into retail banking.

But on Wednesday, the Independent Community Bankers of America, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., issued a statement drawing a line from Wal-Mart to Home Depot to a dismantled financial services structure.

"Home Depot's acquisition of EnerBank is the latest illustration that exploitation of the (industrial loan corporation) loophole by commercial companies is mushrooming out of control," Camden K. Fine, president and chief executive of the ICBA, said in the statement. "Many fear that if Wal-Mart opens a bank, other retailers will also seek to take advantage of the ILC loophole. Well, Wal-Mart's application is still pending, and the stampede through that loophole has already begun.

"Our nation is at risk of dismantling a financial structure that has evolved over 200 years and has served our country well by giving us a safe, sound and strong financial system. Congress should not allow the line it created separating banking and commerce to be irreparably breached through a loophole in the law. ICBA urges Congress to examine this issue and its impact on our economy and communities, before it's too late."

Both the Wal-Mart and Home Depot applications are before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions, which must approve them before banking operations can commence. Wal-Mart submitted its applications in July 2005.

The FDIC held public hearings in two cities on the Wal-Mart application in April and has yet to issue its ruling. It received a change of control notice regarding the Home Depot acquisition Tuesday.

David Barr, spokesman for the FDIC, told the Deseret Morning News that no new information was available regarding the Wal-Mart application or when a decision will be rendered.

"We are not under any deadlines to act and are in the process of analyzing the 4,000 comment letters, the written testimony and the information contained in the application," Barr said. "I do not know how long that will take."