Google is looking to take a step into the banking world, with plans to offer checking accounts next year. The project is, fittingly, called Cache.
Appropriate puns aside, this will be done through a partnership with Citigroup and Stanford Federal Credit Union. The checking accounts will also be accessible from the Google Pay app. Beyond the partnership, Google has announced little else about its move into the banking space.
Caesar Sengupta, Google’s vice president of product management, said that Cache is designed to “help more people do more stuff in a digital way online”. He also pointed out that while checking accounts can contain a lot of data on consumer spending and earning, the company won’t be selling them to advertisers.
Google is the most recent among tech companies to move towards financial services. Apple announced a credit card in partnership with Goldman Sachs earlier in the year. On the other hand, Facebook has its own unified payment system called Facebook Pay.
There may be something that all three of this will unfortunately have in common – not being available here. In Google’s case, this might not necessarily be the case since Citigroup is, after all, a multinational brand.
(Source: Reuters)
