Walmart seems to be popular among financial services players these days. First PayPal and now Capital One have noted the significance of their partnerships with the retailer in recent earnings calls.

Just yesterday, in Capital One’s 3Q18 earnings call, Richard Fairbank, CEO and chairman, mentioned that Capital One will be the exclusive issuer of Walmart private label and co-branded credit cards.

On this product, Fairbank stated:

Walmart is America’s largest retailer and we have a shared vision of how a card partnership can be a central part of a winning retail and e-commerce strategy. There is great leverage from payments innovation, digital capabilities, data and analytics, to deepen relationships, drive digital adoption and create the exceptional customer experience.

And indeed, partnering with a retailer like Walmart seems to be a wise strategic move for an FI.

In fact, according to Dave DeFazio, Partner at StrategyCorps, a company that works with banks on enhancing their checking accounts, the number of Walmart Pay users has consistently been on the rise for the past two years.

In a presentation from DeFazio at the American Bankers Association conference in New York this week, the number of people that used Walmart Pay on their smartphones grew nearly 25% in 4Q17 from the previous quarter alone.

“This growth is only going to continue,” DeFazio said. “Retailers are the ones to watch in the payments world.”

For Capital One, the partnership with Walmart is too new to have an impact on its latest earnings, but Fairbank has high hopes for the future. “Pulling up, we like the economics of the deal and we believe that our relationship with Walmart will generate significant value for years to come,” he said.

Aside from the co-branded credit cards, Capital One is also “in the process of discussing the potential acquisition of the existing portfolio of Walmart credit card receivables. As you’d expect there will be a range of potential outcomes until this process runs its course,” Fairbank said.

For the third quarter ending September 30, Capital One reported a 3% YOY decline in net revenue to $7 billion. The bank reported a net income of $1.5 billion down from $1.9 billion in the previous quarter.

Capital One does not disclose the number of its digital users.