Alphabet Inc’s Google is shelving plans to add bank accounts to its payment app, becoming the latest tech giant to dial back its ambitions for financial services.
For years, Google has said it is working on adding bank accounts from partners such as Citigroup Inc and Bank of Montreal to its revamped app. The idea was that Google Pay users would be able to use the app to apply for so-called Plex checking and savings accounts from 11 banks.
“Our work with our partners has made it extremely clear that there’s consumer demand for simple, seamless and secure digital payments for online and in-store transactions,” a spokesperson for Google said in a statement. “We’re updating our approach to focus primarily on delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services.”
Photo: Reuters
Google has tried, and struggled, to become a primary medium of commerce — a goal that has also proven elusive for rivals such as Facebook Inc. The Plex accounts were just one part of a broad overhaul of the Google Pay app, which also allowed users to link up their existing bank accounts and credit cards, and search for discounts when setting out to shop or dine.
Since its debut in 2015, Google Pay — originally called Android Pay — has amassed 150 million users in 30 countries.
Work on updating the Google Pay app — which consumers mostly rely on to send money to friends or for online shopping — began under Caesar Sengupta. He was vice president of the payments business and oversaw Google’s Next Billion Users initiative until his departure in March. Sengupta was in April replaced by Bill Ready, a former PayPal Holdings Inc executive.
By the time Ready took the reins, the Plex account project was behind schedule, a person familiar with the matter said.
A slew of noteworthy executives departed the company and rather than pushing ahead, Ready abandoned the effort.
Google’s decision is a loss for Citigroup, which had been touting the tie-up as evidence of its ability to forge digital partnerships with technology giants in its home country — similar to those it has with the likes of India’s Paytm or Singapore’s Grab. The company vowed to use the technology it made for the partnership with Google in deals with other companies.
“We respect Google’s decision to update its strategy for Plex and look forward to finding other opportunities to work together, including as part of their payments ecosystem,” Citigroup said in a statement. “We also will use the learnings from this effort and the work we did to develop enhanced capabilities to accelerate Citi’s proprietary efforts and advance our work with partner ecosystems.”
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