Two months into a six-month moratorium on industrial bank applications, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is reiterating its stand that it is not trying to pummel community banks, take over the banking industry or put Wal-Mart Bank branches in all its stores.

In a meeting Wednesday with the Deseret Morning News editorial board, Wal-Mart's director of financial services, Tom McLean, said the retailer intends a "limited purposes institution," chartered in Utah, which will help Wal-Mart increase its efficiency by saving on fees it pays to third-party processors of credit card, debit card and check transactions. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., sees 2.4 billion such transactions per year, McLean said.

That is what the retailer's applications seek, and that's all it seeks, McLean said, despite the worries expressed by the American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America and others since the applications were filed in July 2005.

The ICBA states on its Web site that "Wal-Mart Bank would pose a serious threat to drive community banks out of business, like they have done to local grocery stores, drug stores, hardware stores, etc.

"Wal-Mart says its ILC will have only 'back office' functions," the ICBA states, "but there is no way to guarantee that the Wal-Mart Bank will stick to that plan."

Testifying before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in April, ABA chairman Art Johnson said that "it's clear that Wal-Mart has both a demonstrated appetite to engage in full-service banking and has a recent and ongoing track record of expanding the retail banking services it offers. Given this record, Wal-Mart's application presents an unprecedented challenge to the settled policy of keeping banking separate from nonfinancial commerce. It risks a direct and irreparable breach of policy."

The ABA also asked the FDIC to deny Wal-Mart deposit insurance.

Following those hearings, the FDIC on July 28 imposed a six-month moratorium on industrial bank applications for deposit insurance, citing the need to "assess developments in the ILC (industrial loan corporation, or industrial bank) industry, to determine if any emerging safety and soundness or policy issues exist involving ILCs."

The moratorium is effective through Jan. 27, 2007, and includes all pending bank applications and applications for changes in banking control, which include Wal-Mart Bank and another high-profile application submitted by Home Depot.

On Wednesday, McLean reiterated to the Morning News that Wal-Mart Bank, if granted its charter and deposit insurance, will stick to the terms of the charter.

"There will be no lending," he said. "There will be no branching."