Google gives up launching its banking offer – franceinfo

He ended two years of work. Google has given up on launching its own banking offer at a time when the offer of online financial services is exploding, a spokesperson told AFP on Friday (October 1), confirming information from the Wall Street Journal.

“We are changing our approach to focus first on delivering digital services to banks and other financial services companies rather than providing these services ourselves.”, said a spokesperson for Google, a subsidiary of the Alphabet group.

Called Plex, the concept had been in development for two years, with the collaboration of the American bank Citigroup. For Google it was not a question of becoming a full-fledged bank, but of serving as an interface with existing establishments, such as Citi.

The Plex accounts would have been synchronized with the Google Pay application, which already allows you to pay with your smartphone, the idea being to offer a practical, simple and attractive app. According to Wall Street Journal, approximately 400,000 people had registered on a waiting list for Plex.