Technology Google plans to offer checking accounts next year

Google is planning to offer checking accounts within its Google Pay app, The Wall Street Journal reports. Its “Cache” project, which could launch as soon as next year, will be offered in partnership with Citigroup and a small Stanford University credit union. Google says that the accounts will be branded up front as coming from these banks, which will handle the financial backend and regulatory compliance.

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Google executive Caesar Sengupta told the WSJ that the initiative is designed to “help more people do more stuff in a digital way online,” and he noted that the service could be used to offer loyalty card programs. The publication also notes that checking accounts contain a huge amount of valuable data about consumer spending as well as information about how much people earn. Google, however, has been quick to claim that it won’t sell checking account financial data to advertisers, and it added that it doesn’t currently use Google Pay data for advertising purposes.

Google will offer checking accounts next year, report says

The tech giant is reportedly partnering with Citigroup and a credit union at Stanford University."Our approach is going to be to partner deeply with banks and the financial system," Google's Caesar Sengupta told the Journal. He added that it may be a longer path, but Google viewed it as "more sustainable.

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (O:GOOGL) Google will offer personal checking accounts from sometime next year in partnership with Citigroup Inc (N:C) and a small credit union at Stanford Facebook's plan to launch its Libra cryptocurrency has met with skepticism from regulators, worried about the risk

Google will become the latest technology company to wade into banking with the search giant set to offer checking accounts next year , according The accounts for the project will be run by Citigroup and the Stanford Federal Credit Union, the report said. Google did not immediately return an email for

In recent years, big tech companies have been increasingly interested in pushing into financial services. Earlier this year, Apple launched a credit card, the Apple Card, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, and Facebook announced Libra, a cryptocurrency it’s attempting to launch with a collection of other tech and finance companies. Just yesterday, Facebook announced Facebook Pay, a service for sending money over the company’s social networks and app. Even Amazon has reportedly investigated offering checking accounts to teens.

Google wants to be your new bank

It's not just Apple and Facebook diving headlong into the financial world. Google has revealed plans to offer checking accounts in 2020 through a project nicknamed Cache. The search giant won't handle the actual underpinnings -- Citigroup and a credit union at Stanford University will both handle the accounts and feature the most prominent branding. There will still be integration between Google and the accounts, though, and some of it might raise concerns among regulators.Google is promising that it won't sell account holders' financial data. Instead, this is meant to add value for customers, shops and the banks themselves with services like loyalty programs.

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google will offer personal checking accounts from sometime next year in partnership with Citigroup Inc (C.N) and a small credit union at Stanford University, a source familiar with Google ’s plans said on Wednesday.

Google is the latest big tech company to make a move into banking and personal financial services: The company is gearing up to offer checking accounts to consumers, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal, starting as early as next year . Google is calling the projected “Cache,” and it’ll partner

These initiatives have already created big problems for the companies that are offering them. Apple’s credit card is being investigated for discriminating against women, and earlier this month, almost half a dozen companies dropped out of Facebook’s Libra Association, as regulators grow increasingly wary of the planned cryptocurrency. This push into financial services also arrives as the world is coming to terms with the privacy implications of concentrating so much user data in the hands of a small number of tech giants.

At the same time as Silicon Valley’s tech giants move into financial services, a number of smaller tech-focussed banks have started to emerge, including Revolut and Monzo, the latter of which launched in the US earlier this year. Left in the middle, traditional banks could soon start to feel the squeeze.