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.
Aside from this benefit, however, no other details were provided. Google said it hasn’t yet decided if it will charge users a fee for its checking account.
Google executive Caesar Sengupta told The Wall Street Journal that their approach “is going to be to partner deeply with banks and the financial system.”
Is that really what people want or need from big tech right now? As a whole, reputations aren’t exactly shining. Misuse of data and trust is at an all-time high. The reasonable expectation of privacy is a joke. There are a ton of metrics that could be gleamed from sensitive financial information and purchasing habits. Who is to say these companies won’t sell that data or use it to boost other aspects of their business?
