TORONTO: Wal-Mart Canada has applied for a banking license, which is expected to be received favourably by regulators given the tightening credit climate in Canada.

Prospectus Associates, a government relations firm in Ottawa, is lobbying the government on behalf of Wal-Mart Canada. In the notice of its impending application to the Minister of Finance to establish a banking service, the company wrote, “The bank will carry on business in Canada under the name Wal-Mart Canada Bank in the English ...