- Walmart reportedly hired two bankers from Goldman Sachs to help it manage its new fintech venture.
- The retailer announced a partnership with Ribbit Capital to offer financial products in January.
- Walmart’s latest move represents a commitment to pave the way in the financial world.
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While Walmart plans to launch a fintech startup, the retailer is turning to Wall Street veterans to help it get into the banking world.
Walmart Inc. hired two senior bankers from Goldman Sachs to help lead the retailer’s new fintech startup arm, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman’s consumer bank, and David Stark, one of its top lieutenants, will leave the bank to help boost Walmart’s financial services venture with investment firm Ribbit Capital, people familiar with the matter said. to Bloomberg. The departure of Ismail, who runs Marcus, was a “surprise”, the sources told Bloomberg.
Walmart announced earlier this year that it was partnering with Ribbit Capital, the company that supports fintech startups like Robinhood, Affirm and Credit Karma, to offer financial products to customers and employees. The startup, which has not yet been publicly named, will be majority owned by Walmart and will include several Walmart executives on its board.
Customers “have made it clear that they want more of us in the financial services arena,” Walmart US President and CEO John Furner said in a statement earlier. Walmart’s current financial services offerings include the Walmart CapitalOne credit card, the prepaid Walmart MoneyCard and the ability to cash in-store checks.
“Walmart’s recently announced fintech joint venture with Ribbit Capital will provide numerous opportunities for growth, with the leverage of its huge customer base at the heart of the initiative,” said Moody’s vice president and senior credit director Charlie O’Shea, in a note to investors, previously informed Insider. “Walmart has been slowly and tactically expanding its financial services offerings to its customers, and the measured expansion of these capabilities makes sense, as it will deepen these very important relationships with customers.”
Walmart’s latest move represents a commitment to pave the way in the financial world. The retailer may also have an advantage, eventually, by using its thousands of stores to market its new product and display ads to a wide variety of customers.
In February, Walmart reported $ 152.1 billion in total sales, up 7.3% year on year.
Walmart and Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.