Walmart wants to open a bank. Could it actually help people?

It all depends on how you crunch the numbers

Walmart
(Image credit: (REUTERS/John Gress))

Walmart is the world's largest retailer, a status it earned by putting every product a shopper could conceivably need under one roof. For years, though, one major area of consumer activity had proven elusive for the Bentonville giant: financial services.

That's set to change in late October, when Walmart will begin offering basic transactional accounts under the brand name GoBank, through a partnership with Green Dot Bank.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Jacob Anbinder

Jacob Anbinder is a policy associate at the Century Foundation, the New York-based think tank. He writes about transportation, infrastructure, and urban affairs.