The Mixing of Banking and Commerce: A Conference Summary
Recent efforts by Wal-Mart, Home Depot
and other commercial firms to acquire
industrial loan corporations (ILCs),
which are insured by the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC), have
focused attention on ILCs in particular
and the mixing of banking and commerce
in general. Various interest groups, including
community activists, labor unions
and business groups, and some members
of Congress opposed those ILC
applications. In response, in July 2006
the FDIC announced a six-month moratorium
on all ILC applications. It extended
the moratorium an additional
year for nonfinancial firms in January
2007 and encouraged Congress to address
the issue through legislation.