Chicago-Kent Law Review Volume 83 Issue 2 Symposium: Rethinking Payments in Article 18 Law April 2008 A Requiem for Sam's Bank Ronald J. Mann Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Ronald J. Mann, A Requiem for Sam's Bank, 83 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 953 (2008). Available at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol83/iss2/18 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago-Kent Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. A REQUIEM FOR SAM'S BANK RONALD J. MANN* INTRODUCTION Wal-Mart's application to form a bank ignited controversy among dis- parate groups, ranging from union backers to realtors' groups to charitable organizations.' The dominant voices, though, were those of independent bankers complaining that the big-box retailer would drive them out of busi- ness. Wal-Mart denied any interest in competing with local banks by open- ing branches, 2 claiming that it was interested only in payments processing. Distrusting Wal-Mart, the independent bankers urged the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to deny Wal-Mart's request and lobbied state and federal lawmakers to block Wal-Mart's plans through legislation. Ultimately, Wal-Mart withdrew its application, concluding that it stood little chance of overcoming the opposition. The controversy dovetails with a banking regulatory concern about the existing system for supervising commercial firms that own non-traditional banks.