Wal-Mart tried to open its own bank in the past, and the banking industry howled loudly. Wal-Mart last dropped its banking application in 2007 and instead has focused on signing up partners to offer financial services. The retailer now works with American Express and Green Dot for prepaid cards and offers international money transfers through MoneyGram International and Xoom, credit cards via GE Capital, and online bill payment through MoneyGram and CheckFreePay. Note how Wal-Mart's partners tend to comes in sets of two, a move that gives the retailer more leverage over suppliers to offer lower-cost products. That brings them back to the new domestic money transfers. Wal-Mart had already offered ways for customers to send money within the US through MoneyGram under a contract that Daniel Eckert, SVP of services for Walmart US, says still has three more years, so this new offering is in some ways direct competition.