Most previous efforts have focused on credit cards and payment platforms.
The accounts for the project will be run by Citigroup and the Stanford Federal Credit Union, the source said, confirming a report in The Wall Street Journal.
As part of a project code-named Cache, the company will become the latest Silicon Valley leader to try its hand at the banking space. Previous attempts by Apple and Facebook faced obstacles, with consumers growing increasingly skeptical over providing large technology companies with their personal information.
Google does not intend to sell customers’ data, Caesar Sengupta, an executive at the firm, told the Journal.
“If we can help more people do more stuff in a digital way online, it’s good for the internet and good for us,” Sengupta said.
For years, banks had been concerned about competition from small, nimble fintech upstarts. But it turns out that Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon, already armed with relationships with hundreds of millions of consumers, may prove to be the larger threat.
Last year, Amazon had reportedly been in talks with J.P. Morgan over a checking account. Apple launched a credit card for iPhone users earlier this year with Goldman Sachs. Uber announced its push into financial services last month, and just Tuesday Facebook announced a new system to facilitate payments across its social media and messaging systems.
Apple’s offering has run into multiple issues. Its partnership with Goldman has been tense after Apple said it created the card without help from a bank. Also, complaints have arisen recently that the algorithm used to determine customers’ credit limits is biased toward men.
Google’s plans are to brand the checking accounts with the financial institutions’ names, not its own.
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