Wal-Mart to Get into Money Transfer Business: Is More Competition in Banking Coming?

Barron's reports:

Wal-Mart (WMT) finished higher on Thursday, after announcing a new money-transfer business, Walmart-2-Walmart, launching next week.

The new service will let customers transfer as much as $900 through the retailer’s U.S. network of more than 4,000 stores. The company says that the service will offer lower prices to its low-income customers, many of whom cannot participate in the regular banking system. The world’s largest retailer already provides money orders and tax preparation, along with check-cashing, bill-paying services.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Wal-Mart’s prices do appear to undercut rivals. The market certainly seems to be nervous, sending Western Union (WU) 5% lower on Thursday, while MoneyGram International (MGI) suffered a 17.7% drop.

Competition is coming!