Blue Cross Abandons ILC Bid

From Dow Jones:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said Tuesday it has secured a federal thrift charter and dropped plans to open an industrial bank. This marks the latest fallout from the public outcry over Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s application to own an industrial bank.

The banking division will be called Blue Healthcare Bank and will be based in Salt Lake City. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, along with 33 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, applied for an industrial loan corporation, or ILC, charter in January 2006.

This is the same type of charter that Wal-Mart requested in the summer of 2005 and that Home Depot Inc. applied for several months later.

From the Associated Press via Forbes:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Jan. 31 extended its moratorium on applications for the special bank, known as an industrial loan corporation, for a year to give Congress time to act on the issue. This extended a moratorium that had lasted six months and had caught up Blue Cross’ application as well as those of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Home Depot Inc., DaimlerChrysler AG and other companies.