Wal-Mart reportedly hasn't yet settled on where it is going to build in Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point), but multiple sources say it is eventually going to put a store in the area. News out yesterday is that Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB has opened up consumer banking branches in four of its Wal-Mart stores in Mexico and is planning on eventually rolling out branches in many of its stores across the country. The idea being to provide bank accounts to Mexicans who don't currently have them because of the high fees the major Mexican banks charge and minimum balance requirements that many cannot meet.
Presumably when Wal-Mart does take the leap and opens up a store in Puerto Peñasco, it will include a Banco Wal-Mart branch that will provide low-cost consumer banking competition to the other banks in town.
So capitalism is alive and well in Mexico and Wal-Mart is a big part of the picture. For anyone worrying about Banco Wal-Mart stepping on the toes of locally owned banks - don't. All the major banks in Mexico are owned by powerful international banking conglomerates such as Citicorp, Bank of America, Scotiabank, HSBC and BBVA. So the result of this new venture by Wal-Mart will probably be current Mexican banks losing some market share and needing to contemplate lowering their rates to maintain their account and deposit levels - thus benefitting the consumer, particularly low income Mexicans.
The full Bloomberg article can be read here.
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