Fascinating news came out today, intertwined with the weekly "Bank Failure Friday".
To wit:
"The last failure of the evening was 122-year-old SolutionsBank [6] of Overland Park, Kansas. As of September 30, SolutionsBank had total assets of $511.1 million and total deposits of approximately $421.3 million. Arvest Bank of Fayetteville, Arkansas assumed all of the deposits of SolutionsBank without paying a premium to the FDIC."
But this is where it gets good:
"Arvest is owned by the family of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton. It has twice bid unsuccessfully for failed banks in an effort to break into the Kansas City market, the Kansas City Star reports [7]. With 220 branches spread over Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas, Arvest is already a regional player that thanks to the misfortunes of others just got a bit bigger."
As any banker would tell you, Wal Mart has been trying desperately and for some time to get into banking. They owned Arvest and now it just grew further, by a little over a half billion dollars.
You see, if Wal Mart can be its own bank, it will save at least millions more dollars on its own banking but then also make more money--no doubt yet more millions--by doing that banking business, too.
So you see, boys and girls, Wal Mart really will one day own and rule the world.
Bwha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Link to additional information:
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3708382
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2 comments:
Apparently, Arvest's founders are the same people who founded Wal-Mart, but is privately held (WM is a public company). Am told that the Waltons have very little to do with the day-to-day of Wal-Mart (at this point) also... at last check, there were only 2 Waltons on the board, and one of THEM owns a bank which competes against Arvest in Oklahoma (RCB).
WM, if you'll recall, struck out repeatedly trying to get an ILC which would have "loopholed" them into being able to legitimately have a bank already, and hopefully that's a dead issue. WM does not own Arvest; again, it is a privately held company.
All true, of course, but I'm really not saying the Waltons want Wal-Mart to be a big banking entity. I'm saying Wal-Mart, the corporation, wants that power and ability. Also, while they haven't gotten the ILC yet, what I'm suggesting, at minimum, is that they're likely still trying to get such authority.
The fat lady isn't singing yet.
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