ICYMI: Google pulls back on bank-account plans

Google, which had planned to launch bank accounts under the Plex brand, announced it was abandoning the initiative in favor of “digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers.”

Why should we care?
Google, like Facebook, has stopped short of becoming a principal vehicle to deliver financial products. The offering, which had been under development for years, was slated to launch in 2020. Eleven banks were partnering with Google on the Plex rollout, including Citi, Stanford Federal Credit Union, BM Technologies, and BBVA USA. The Google Plex rollout, however, was hampered by the departure of the initiative’s most prominent backer, Caesar Sengupta, who was vice president of Google’s payments business. In April, Sengupta was replaced by Bill Ready, a former PayPal executive, who continued to pursue the initiative, but was “concerned that Plex could make other banks think that Google was out to compete with them since it played a lead role in building the product.” As the project fell behind, multiple executives departed the company and Ready abandoned the project. Nearly one in five consumers said they would open a Google Plex account when it launched, according to a Cornerstone Advisors survey conducted earlier this year.