In 2020 Google announced Plex, a service aimed to let you do all your banking through the Google Pay app. Google has now stopped working on Plex, which would let users sign up for current or savings accounts offered by a wide range of traditional banks directly through Google Pay. Users would then be able to manage these bank accounts directly from the app as well.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has shelved its plans for what promised to be a very innovative product due to a series of missed deadlines, and an executive that was driving it has left the business.
What made the project interesting is that Google wasn’t planning on competing with traditional banks with this product. It would rather partner with all of these financial institutions to provide their accounts to customers without monthly or overdraft fees and without minimum balances. It would allow users to set things like savings targets and automatic transfers directly from the Google Pay app, on as many of their accounts as they pleased.
Google has said that they still believe there is a demand from customers for simpler banking – better ways to pay for things while shopping online or in-store, as well as integration of all their banking products – but the company has said that it will be focusing on “delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services.”
This is especially a much-needed improvement in the American market, as its banking system is lagging very much behind the majority of the developed world. Its antiquated structures, systems and services have bred the ability for services like PayPal and CashApp to thrive. Those type of services are readily available with most banking apps around the world, but immediate interbank transfers aren’t possible in the USA.
