Synchrony Financial and the Walmart-backed firm OnePay announced the new Mastercard on Monday, June 9. The move comes after Walmart ended its previous credit card partnership with Capital One years ahead of schedule.
Walmart had leaned on Capital One as its exclusive credit card issuer since 2018, but sued to exit the agreement early in 2023, CNBC reported. Capital One later claimed Walmart wanted to end the contract to shift transactions to OnePay.
At the time the partnership ended, the Walmart card program had 10 million customers, according to Fitch Ratings. Users had about $8.5 billion in outstanding loans.
The new program will offer a general-purpose Mastercard and a private label card to be used exclusively at Walmart. Both cards will be embedded in the OnePay app, adding to OnePay’s growing lineup of financial tools like cashback debit, high-yield savings, digital wallets, and peer-to-peer payments.
OnePay was founded by Walmart and venture firm Ribbit Capital in 2021.
“Our goal with this credit card program is to deliver an experience for consumers that’s transparent, rewarding, and easy to use,” said OnePay CEO Omer Ismail. “We’re excited to be partnering with Synchrony to launch a program at Walmart that checks each of those boxes and will help serve millions of people.”
Synchrony, based in Stamford, Connecticut, will be the exclusive issuer of the cards, offering lending expertise and digital infrastructure.
“We are proud to be selected by OnePay to further our mission of helping people live better and build healthier financial futures with Walmart,” said Synchrony president and CEO Brian Doubles. “Together, we aim to drive even greater innovation and new credit experiences to better serve customers while driving long-term, high-quality growth.”
The partnership signals a strategy shift for OnePay, working with well-known financial industry companies instead of developing its own services. In March, OnePay selected Swedish fintech Klarna to handle Walmart’s “buy now, pay later” loans, even after testing its own BNPL program.
Walmart executives pointed to the new credit card partnership as another step toward modernizing the customer experience.
“Today’s announcement represents one more way we’re serving our customers the way they want to be served, providing an upgraded digital financial services experience with even greater choice and value,” said Walmart executive vice president and chief financial officer John David Rainey.
The new credit card program is expected to launch in the fall.
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