Everyone's favorite retailer is in the news again this morning announcing plans to move ahead with in-store money services.

This is a story I'd been waiting to hear since earlier this month when the Financial Times broke the news that WalMar was prepping a money card. I was interested in the story because of WalMar's failed attempt earlier this year to get in to the money business by operating a specialty bank within their retail operation.

At the time they said the bank would help them save money because it would allow them to internalize credit-card and check transactions. Consumer groups and banks revolted at the idea. They saw it as a first step to the ruin of the local community bank. Politicians wasted little time jumping on the bandwagon. WalMart withdrew the application.

WalMart's now come back with a new and very similar idea which doesn't require the same approvals. This time they're not getting into banking per se. They're setting up "MoneyCenters" inside 1000 of their stores where they will offer low-cost services such as check cashing, money orders, money transfers and bill payment. A central component of their plans is the Wal-Mart MoneyCard (www.walmartmoneycard.com), a reloadable prepaid Visa card which will be immediately available nation wide.

WalMart says it is making this move because offering low-cost money services to its customers will

help meet the needs of the millions of unbanked and underserved customers who visit Wal-Mart each week for their basic money service needs.

Kind of makes you feel all good inside, doesn't it? OK, all cynicism aside, WalMart is doing this for a couple of very good reasons.

For one thing, WalMart will be able to invest every pre-paid dollar stored up in their WalMart Visa cash cards. (OK, not every dollar, but you know what I mean.) We all know what a cash bonanza these pre-paid cash cards are for retailers. The retailer gets the money up front, and every day is another day's return on that cash value. It's captive cash, meaning that when spent, it'll be spent for that merchant's goods or services. And perhaps best of all, it's estimated that as much as 15% of the money in these cards is never spent at all because the cards are lost, tossed or simply forgotten about.

The real reason I think WalMart is being so persistent about getting into the money services game, however, is only indirectly related to profit production. I believe they're looking at their information suppliers for ways to improve information quality and cut costs. WalMart wants to consolidate as much of its customers' transaction data into one place. This will give them more leverage with credit card processors in a couple of ways: They will be able to leverage lower pricing for the services provided, and they will be able to demand better consumer behavior information.

See, I think this announcement is all about collecting and analyzing their customers' buying behavior. It's about data mining. WalMart already does extensive analysis on their customers' buying habits, but this move will give them much more direct access to that information, and at a lower cost.

Here's why I think the real prize is in the data.

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