Google is planning to offer checking accounts from next year according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Google will be working with Citigroup and the Stanford Federal Credit Union to provide accounts for those who sign up. The new project is codenamed Cache but it’s not clear if that will be the product name when it finally launches.
Google isn’t the first to get into the financial space. Apple launched its Apple Card product earlier this year and has run into an issue over sexism. Facebook, on the other hand, announced its own global cryptocurrency called Libra but has run into regulatory issues and lost several big backers as a result.
Google doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to privacy, but Caesar Sengupta, an executive at Google, said that the firm will not sell customer data, stating:
“If we can help more people do more stuff in a digital way online, it’s good for the internet and good for us.”
The reports do not say when Google plans to unveil Cache, only that it’s due next year. A likely time that we could see it arrive is in May when the firm holds its annual developer conference, Google I/O. Unlike Apple’s offering, the checking accounts will not carry the Google brand, but the financial institution’s names.
Source: Wall Street Journal (Paywall) via CNBC
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