The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has paved a way for non-banking companies to apply for a US banking charter.

The publication of the final rule may lead to host of tech giant such as Amazon, Facebook, Walmart, challenging the established banking companies.

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The rule will allow non-banking firms to lend money without meeting capital and liquidity requirement dedicated financial firms need to meet.

The rule will impact new ‘industrial loan charter’ (ILC) banks, which are lenders chartered by states. They are allowed to offer limited banking services and receive FDIC assurances for their deposits.

FDIC chairman Jelena McWilliams said: “The rule would provide transparency to market participants regarding the FDIC’s minimum expectations for parent companies of industrial banks.

“In addition, the rule would ensure that all parent companies of industrial banks approved for deposit insurance going forward would be subject to these commitments.”

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Earlier this year, FDIC issued conditional ILC charters to the mobile payments firm Square and student lender Nelnet.

Separately, Japanese online retailer and nonbank Rakuten is the looking to set up its own bank in the US. This could bring banking and commerce under one roof for the first time.

Traditional banks are of the opinion that they are at a competitive disadvantage under the new FDIC rule.

In blog post last month, lobbying group Bank Policy Institute wrote: “If the FDIC approves Rakuten’s application, it will set a precedent for every other big tech company (Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc) to enter banking through an ILC charter without consolidated supervision.”