Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced that it intends to open 775 new Wal-Mart MoneyCenters and launch a reloadable prepaid Wal-Mart MoneyCard in a major expansion of the financial services it provides to its base of low-income customers, Reuters reported.

The company earlier this year withdrew an application with U.S. bank regulators to operate a specialty bank in the face of immense opposition from politicians, consumer groups and community banks.

Though Wal-Mart had insisted it wanted to use the bank to save money by processing credit card and check transactions internally, consumer groups and banks feared the retailer would eventually provide other retail banking services, leading to the demise of community banks.

Wal-Mart currently has 225 MoneyCenters and intends to expand that number to 1,000 by the end of 2008. The retailer said the centers, which are geared toward customers who operate outside mainstream banking, offer services such as check cashing, money orders, bill payment and money transfers.