For nearly two decades, Synchrony Financial was the exclusive issuer of Walmart Inc. credit cards. That came crashing down in July, when Walmart told Synchrony it was switching to Capital One Financial Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported. Walmart executives had grown irritated because, among other issues, they wanted Synchrony to share more of the cards’ revenue and approve more applicants, according to people familiar with the situation. Store cards were already slumping as many traditional mall retail businesses, like J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Macy’s Inc., lose popularity. Sears Holdings Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection last week, was one of the first department stores to roll out its own credit card decades ago. As those retailers shrink, banks are scrambling to compete for card agreements with a handful of big, successful merchants like Amazon.com Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. And those companies, like Walmart, are finding they can demand bigger concessions from card companies.
