Google announced it will offer personal checking accounts next year through its Google Pay app, initially in partnership with Citigroup and a small credit union at Stanford University.
Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said on Wednesday it will offer personal checking accounts next year through its Google Pay app, initially in partnership with Citigroup Inc (C.N) and a small credit union at Stanford University. The project, codenamed Cache, comes as rivals Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) are expanding their own efforts in consumer finance, a broad area that ranges from digital payment apps to bank accounts, brokerage accounts and loans, and which offer Silicon Valley new sources of revenue and new opportunities to strengthen ties with users. U.S. regulators and lawmakers have expressed concern about how those companies’ massive influence and poor records on data privacy will play out as they try to gain ground in finance. The scrutiny most recently prompted Facebook’s partners to pull back from plans to support the launch of a digital currency.
