Wal-Mart made news last month when it announced an expansion of its check-cashing and money order services and the rollout of a prepaid debit card for its customers. At first blush, this sounds like good news for consumers since Wal-Mart estimates that its fees would be about 25 to 50% lower than its competitors'.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's new financial services may have an adverse consequence–perpetuating low income individuals' reliance on basic money-handling services while doing very little to advance financial literacy, establish a formal relationship with a financial institution or truly help promote prosperity. For the millions of Americans who are unbanked, does Wal-Mart offer a path toward financial independence, or simply a less expensive way to remain outside the mainstream banking system?

Wal-Mart itself acknowledges that it is targeting low-income and underserved consumers with its prepaid MoneyCard and up to 1,000 in-store MoneyCenters by the end of 2008. "Wal-Mart MoneyCenters will assist customers who are outside mainstream banking with convenient, nationwide access to low-cost money services, including check cashing, money orders, bill payment and money transfers," according to a statement issued by the company on June 21.