Walmart Takes Aim at Banks With OnePay Expansion

Each week, PYMNTS Intelligence details the competition between Walmart and Amazon, two behemoths of commerce, jockeying for share of wallet and hundreds of millions of consumers.

In recent reports, we’ve chronicled the growth in subscriptions used by consumers across both these firms, with more than 30% of consumers having a Walmart+ account. 

As detailed in Walmart’s SEC filings, the company has 1.6 million employees in the United States, pointing to an installed base of consumers and workers that represent a strong foundation with which to forge a financial services ecosystem. 

Walmart’s FinTech efforts are now a bit more than four years old. In partnership with the Walmart-backed OnePay, the retailer has been busy with a string of announcements that take aim at banks and neobanks alike, in a nod to traditional financial products delivered digitally. 

Walmart consumers already have some familiarity with money movement as part of the range of services tied to Walmart. Walmart Money Centers have been staples of check cashing and remittances. The retailer’s co-branded card with Capital One had $8.5 billion in loans at the time that Walmart exited that card pact last year. 

In the latest announcement, on Monday (June 9), OnePay said it is teaming with Synchrony to launch a credit card program.

The OnePay app serves as a digital front door through which general propose and private-label cards (for Walmart purchases) will roll out beginning this fall. Synchrony, meanwhile, has long made a mark in private label cards.

OnePay’s own site details the offerings thus far accessible through the company’s digital wallet, both online and in store, as consumers add debit and credit cards, and redeem rewards.

As for the digital wallets, PYMNTS Intelligence’s “How the World Does Digital” series has documented that mobile wallets are tied to 35% of online and 21% of in-store transactions; a majority of consumers also use digital banking apps.

The synergies here come as the digital wallets serve as that gateway to a continuum of financial interactions. OnePay/Walmart said earlier this year that a partnership had been struck with buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Klarna to offer installment loans at Walmart. 

The moves come at a time when BNPL has been among the most widely embraced payment modalities. PYMNTS has estimated that BNPL transactions have hit the $175 billion mark, garnering enthusiasm across all income levels.

Walmart, too, has seen an influx of higher income shoppers, with this demographic growing its footprint at big box stores. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon noted that the retailer continues to gain share among households earning over $100,000, which now account for 75% of Walmart’s share gains in the U.S. toward the end of the year.

Coming into 2025, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster detailed that the FinTechs and other digital only players would have to gird for turbulence.

“[OnePay], with Walmart, can use the connectivity they have with brands to disrupt the economics of how pure-play FinTechs make their money,” Webster wrote in January. “That can become the basis for a disruptive business model that doesn’t rely on investor checks to cover up shortfalls in positive unit economics. The sheer scale of their customer base and supplier relationships, and the ability to connect purchases with offers and financing, is unmatched by any except for one other retailer — Amazon … [OnePay] looks like it could be a winner, and highly disruptive.”

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