When I listened to Susan Faulkner speak she went out of her way to demonstrate that the Wal-Mart efforts were intended to provide synergy with their business model, that included, the “unbanked consumer”, and transactional efficiency to support their own payments. The argument being that this is not a space the banks are active in anway. Of course the American Banks’ don’t buy that.

So the Canadian effort could be an effort by Wal-Mart to demonstrate to the American regulators that the American Banks’ fears are misplaced, and no need to worry.

Time will tell, but these are fascinating plays. My take would be that anything which dilutes the Banks’ efforts is bad for Banks’s but good for consumers. Its not that I think Banks need to go out of there way to encourage competition, but its a fact that competition will drive efficiency and effectiveness. And its no co-incidence that CitiBank are currently peddling their international payments capabilities to the home countries of North American and European immigrants. Banks everywhere recognise that the demographic shifts arising from immigration require strategy changes.
PS … this is a long comment … I will make a new post on this with links.

Can this in any way be used as an end run around the opposition in the United States?

B’shalom,

Jeff Hess
Have Coffee Will Write