
Google plans to partner with banks to offer checking accounts - Bostonian
https://www.wsj.com/articles/next-in-googles-quest-for-consumer-dominancebanking-11573644601?mod=rsswn
======
zimbatm
Recently, Google suspended accounts for using Emoji comments on YouTube. This
is the whole account, including Gmail access[1].

Now imaging your checking account also got disabled because some bot decided
that you looked suspicious.

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWaz7ofl5wQ&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWaz7ofl5wQ&feature=youtu.be)

~~~
xboxnolifes
> Now imaging your checking account also got disabled because some bot decided
> that you looked suspicious.

That's already how fraud protection works in the majority of banks.

~~~
kibwen
Far from the same.

A bank might suspend your checking account if it detects suspicious financial
transactions on the account. The goal here is (ostensibly) to protect the
account owner.

Google, as per the precedents it has repeatedly set, could suspend your
checking account for participating in a stream on YouTube and following the
streamer's instructions to spam chat with emotes in order to vote on his path
through the game, as happened to Markiplier and his followers. That's far
beyond what anyone should consider reasonable risk for being able to access
their bank account.

~~~
cm2187
The bank might suspend your card until you clear it up (and my bank is much
lighter touch, granted after having blocked my card a dozen times), it doesn't
close your account and lock you out of all your financial services.

------
ckastner
Given Google's reputation for avoiding any type of direct customer support,
I'm perplexed as to why they are trying to do this.

It's one thing to offer an online product suite without any support, it's a
completely other thing to offer a product that is as heavily regulated as
banking services.

They're probably not going to earn any significant amount from providing a
checking account. I can only assume that they're after the transaction data
itself (looking for patterns, etc.), but I find it hard to believe that the
payoff would be large enough to endure the pain that is the current regulatory
environment surrounding banking. Especially when you're notorious for avoiding
personal interactions.

~~~
dannyr
I have Google Fi and bought from Google Store. Their customer service has been
fantastic.

Maybe my experience is one of the few exceptions but I know a bunch of people
who also had a great experience with customer support by Google.

~~~
romanovcode
I just checked what it is. Isn't it a bit expensive?

$70/m for a mobile plan seems ridicilous.

~~~
relaunched
said no one that lives in the US, ever!

It always blows my mind how that whenever you go anywhere in the world, you
can get amazing mobile plans (data and call / sms) for $10-$30 dollars per
month.

~~~
jayshua
Probably has something to do with the size. I'd imagine covering a country
like Denmark or Ireland is considerably easier and cheaper for a smaller
company then covering the US would be.

~~~
postsantum
You would be surprised to see prices for mobile Internet in Russia

~~~
davchana
& in India.

~~~
tylerhou
How is the rural coverage? Is it better than the rural coverage in the US?

~~~
davchana
Yes, atleast 3G is everywhere, 4G is I think most of the places.

------
cm2187
For those who think that google locking arbitrarily your google account isn't
fun enough...

And also for those who reject adblockers and are happy to see google roaming
through all their financial transactions (and health information [1])

[1] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-s-secret-project-
nightin...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-s-secret-project-nightingale-
gathers-personal-health-data-on-millions-of-
americans-11573496790?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=4)

~~~
imglorp
They already have much of your financials. They buy them like everyone else
that wants to know.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2017/05/23...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2017/05/23/google-now-knows-when-you-are-at-a-cash-register-and-how-
much-you-are-spending/)

~~~
raxxorrax
But they use "custom encryption technology" to solve a problem they have
created themselves.

I cannot see how you can not be happy about that. This is definitively not a
lie or something.

------
pete_cruz
I lost my home due to a large amount debt I couldn’t pay . I tried applying
for a loan last month so I could get a bigger apartment for myself. All along,
I thought I had a clean record only to find out that I had an initial eviction
and some other negatives with a very low score of 435 which prevented me from
getting the loan I seek. I met JAMEY GARRISON services online. I really
appreciate meeting him. He helped me increase my score to a high 789 and all
the negative items on my report were removed. I got everything I required and
even more. As i speak, I’m now at the brim of getting a very big home. I want
to fulfill my promise to him for such a discreet delivery in a relatively
short time and at an affordable price. So here I am recommending
JAMEYGARRISCREDITREPAIR AT GMAIL DOT COM or (970)414-1303.

------
fmpwizard
Besides the privacy risks with full on moving your banking to Google, I think
another big issue is when they decide this product isn't profitable any more,
and/or some other department in Google comes up with banking 2.0 and you end
up having to move all your bill payments, auto draft, etc back out. If we
thought killing Google Reader was bad, killing your bank app would be even
worse.

~~~
sct202
It sounds like Citi bank is providing most of the actual services so they'd
probably roll the account fully on to them in that event.

~~~
carty76ers
So Google is the middle man? I’d rather just go straight to Citi directly, and
get customer support on the phone or in-person

~~~
sct202
Yeah I'm not sure what Google's value add is. It might be like how Simple Bank
was partnered with BBVA to run the back end (before BBVA straight up bought
them).

------
judge2020
Temporarily disregarding the other concerns, I much more trust Google's
security since they have the option to require a security key to login
(Advanced Protection Program), no other bank I know of can do that for their
customers' accounts. Having no phone support could also be seen as a positive
to prevent social engineering, assuming you can get support over email or live
chat.

~~~
LegitShady
The concern isn't Google's security it's that google will ban you with poor
customer service and no recourse

~~~
MichaelDickens
Presumably that's why GP said "Temporarily disregarding the other concerns".

~~~
LegitShady
Temporarily disregarding the issue at hand to talk about something unrelated
is still off topic even if you disclaim it.

------
petschge
This increasing spread of FAANG companies across all domains in an attempt to
keep customers completely contained in their ecosystem reminds me of the
megacorps in the Shadowrun universe. We are not too far away from the point
where national law does not apply to them any more. It is certainly already
hard to make tax laws stick. And all the googlers that are proud to slave away
for that particular overlord remind me of the sarari men.

~~~
segmondy
No, it's setting themselves up for breakup, an it's the FAAG, Netflix is not
engaging in these shenanigans. Sad to say, you would think the most corrupted
of the FAANGs would be the entertainment company, but they are the most pure
of them all.

~~~
mrep
GAFAM is what the french use and I think it is most fitting [0].

[0]:
[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAFAM](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAFAM)

------
turc1656
Count me out. I already stay away from them as much as possible (ProtonMail
over Gmail, DuckDuckGo vs Google search, I never log in to youtube and on
Android where you are required I always use incognito, etc., etc.). No way in
hell I am going to give Google of all companies my complete financial
transaction records so they can "analyze" it and sell it to someone. I'm sure
my bank probably already does it but I'd rather them do it (smaller local
bank) than have Google in possession of that information.

~~~
jeanofthedead
I've made the switch to invidio.us, which let me import my subscriptions from
YouTube. I love that you can switch out YT comments for Reddit comments, as
well as the minimalistic appearance in general.

------
durpleDrank
Imagine having your entire life ruined (not being able to purchase food, pay
your rent and or bills on time, etc) because you merely WATCHED a video that
politically doesn't align with the majority of their employees? You are
practically asking children to watch over your money at that point.

~~~
friendlybus
Isn't that stuff supposed to be in authoritarian china/soviets/1984/whatever?

~~~
postsantum
No, this is progressive

Also see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory)

------
CPLX
Every time I read another headline like this (and the healthcare one from
yesterday) think of that scene from the Matrix. I realize it's not exactly a
perfect metaphor, but nonetheless I have visions of an Agent Smith character
saying something like this:

 _I 'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came
to me when I tried to classify Google and Amazon and Facebook and I realized
that you're not actually businesses. Every business on this planet
instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment
but you do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every
natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to
another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same
pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. A disease, a cancer of this planet._

~~~
andrepd
Ironically, that's the exact definition of a business in modern neoliberal
growth capitalism. Grow grow grow, consume all resources, eat all competition.
"Natural equilibrium with the environment"? Please...

~~~
lm28469
I don't get the downvotes, it's painfully obvious that any company that is not
on an exponential growth path is a failure in today's world. And the opposite,
a failed company (uber & co) on an exponential growth path is almost praised
as a divinity.

There is no end game, we need more superfluous gadgets, faster things, smarter
things, for what ? God knows, but it seems we can't do without it. We won't
stop until we're forced to.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
> it's painfully obvious that any company that is not on an exponential growth
> path is a failure in today's world.

I _dramatically_ disagree with that characterization. VCs and the startup
world think that it's "growth or failure". There are a massive number of
businesses where stable is fine (though mild growth would be preferable). You
just don't hear about them.

------
allthecybers
We are un/intentionally creating single points of failure and dependance in
our lives. We now depend on Amazon for all retail goods and (90%?) all web
services and soon to be grocery shopping. Then Google is our email, documents,
photos, cell phone provider, and now bank. I could Apple and FB, etc but this
basically wipes out our life the minute we get locked out of our Google or
Amazon accounts.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
And single points for, say, interested governments to collect information on
us.

~~~
allthecybers
Yep and the marketing industrial complex... why not have all my banking/net
worth info in the same data warehouse as my gmail, google voice/fi, photos and
stored documents. Amazon can handle my healthcare, retail, shopping and
household conversations.

------
Endy
My goodness. I don't even trust Google enough to let them have access to any
of my financial or payment info. I'd rather keep cash under a mattress than
trust them with holding money.

------
kumarm
I am surprised Google hasn't started Business Card similar to Amazon Business
Card (5% cash back on AWS and Amazon Purchases). Businesses that use Google
Ads (and Google Cloud) are far higher compared to who maintain a business
account on Amazon.

Wouldn't data on Business Purchases be higher in value?

~~~
notyourwork
Higher in value to what? Consumer transaction data would be a valuable data
set for purposes of targeted advertisements. Seems one hand washes the other.

~~~
kumarm
Google runs B2B Ads too.

~~~
notyourwork
I don't know this but I presume advertisement revenue from users is larger
compared to revenue from B2B ads. Or at least that is my basis for why
consumer transaction data would be more valuable as a supplement to
advertisement targeting.

------
fauigerzigerk
So what happens if I'm posting too many emojis on youtube? [1]

I know I'm losing my email account as well all my personal data on Google
Drive and in Google Photos. Am I also going to lose my bank account if I'm
careless enough to bank with Google?

[1] [https://www.insider.com/markiplier-youtube-fans-heist-
lost-a...](https://www.insider.com/markiplier-youtube-fans-heist-lost-access-
google-accounts-spamming-emotes-2019-11)

------
rhacker
I am assuming they would want read-access to your account, transactions and
all of this to help them build some ML to adapt advertising and other avenues.
Google probably builds one of the most comprehensive profiles of each user it
has. It will likely continue to find ways to get in more data businesses
(hence this checking thing) to get more and more data. For google it doesn't
even matter if they have people thinking about what to USE that data for. The
algorithms they run will find correlations - transactions or otherwise - that
might surface if you have HIV, are interested in porn, are worth hiring. It
does not matter if these are questions they are thinking about - the ML will
find those questions and answer them - and then tie that to all of their
products, including advertising and selling profiles.

------
tracy_law
my name is tracy. have been through alot about looking for a good credit
expert, finally i found one of the best, he helped me overcome the challenges
about my low credit score, you will love to work with me, he is the best i
have ever work with,you can ask him via email:JAMEYGARRISCREDITREPAIR AT GMAIL
DOT COM or (970)414-1303.he increase my credit score from 400 to 850 and clear
my debts also. and for your information he is great and his service is the
best

------
sdan
What's next, Apple announcing Apple Cloud Services? This year has been crazy
with how much big tech is trying to create walled gardens for consumers.

~~~
delfinom
It's the only way to continue the infinite growth model. Maximize rent
seeking.

~~~
buboard
swimming in more cash than you can even think what to do with helps.

~~~
Apocryphon
Perhaps that's why they're getting into real estate.

------
dmw_ng
The first time I tried to break the cycle with Google was for NYE 2011, but
Gmail was impossible to get rid of at the time. The last redesign has meant
that I literally more than prefer Thunderbird nowadays, and it's no longer
considered weird to not want e-mail/Facebook/etc on your phone, so I'm aiming
to dump Gmail for real for 2020.

Since they killed off so many services pretty much the only thing else that I
use is Google Cloud. Current plan is

\- Disposable account for my phone until I replace it a new phone that has no
identifying marks shared with the old account. Probably create a new
disposable account for the replacement phone and disable sync

\- Otherwise unused Gmail account to own the gcloud stuff

\- Delete my domain, move e-mail to pretty much doesn't matter any more, I'm
back to where the only thing I actually need is POP3. It's insane that somehow
this happened but it did. It's 1998 all over again

~~~
hnrodey
I switched to iCloud as my primary email account and use Mail on macOS and
iOS. Good enough for how I use email.

GMail is an awful experience these days and would consistently bury important
messages (to me anyways) in the tabs/buckets (or whatever they're called) no
matter how many times I would drag them back to Inbox/Primary.

------
kevindong
I'm interested in why Google is partnering with Citi, assuming the rumors are
true. Citi is notorious for having some of the worst tech amongst the churning
community (churning is when you sign up for credit cards/bank accounts solely
for the signup bonus which are ludicrously valuable in comparison to the
ongoing rewards/perks of having the account; after the bonus is obtained you
close the account and reopen it later once you are once again eligible for the
signup bonus).

I originally thought the adage was a joke, but it really isn't. I signed up
for a Citi checking account (purely for the signup bonus) and they have two
interfaces for transferring money to other banks. One looks new but outright
doesn't work. The other looks old, but does work. 90% of the links on the Citi
account dashboard point to the new/non-functional interface. The other 10%
point to the old/functional interface. All of the confirmation emails received
for transferring money were clearly generated by a very, very old system
(plain text HTML with spaces/asterisks used to space out content).

I also literally could not find the routing number for my checking account on
their website. I had to use the live chat to ask for it.

A non paywalled (but different) article:
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/13/google-
ch...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/13/google-checking-
accounts-cache-citigroup-bank)

~~~
jpalomaki
On the other hand, maybe this is exactly why they are interested in partnering
with Google. If the bank agrees that they are loosing on the technology side,
it would definitely make sense (at least on the boardroom PowerPoint) to
partner with one of the leading tech companies.

------
topicseed
Wondering why it took Google so long to want to get there. The data mining
that will occur on these checking accounts is valuable to their ad business.

However, if they add some revolutionary features to it, happy to join. Or,
they could just buy Revolut.

------
daphneokeefe
So you have your paycheck direct-deposited, and you pay all your bills on this
account, so Google now knows your income, your rent, your indebtedness, where
you have all of your accouts (mortgage, auto loan, credit cards).

~~~
Rebelgecko
I wouldn't be surprised if they already know most of those things. They can be
gleaned from things who I get email from in Gmail, things I Google, etc.

------
filmgirlcw
The article includes a chart from McKinsey showing what company users would
trust more to handle their finances. Amazon is number one, Google is two,
Apple is just behind Google, and Facebook is dead last.

I can sort of understand putting Amazon first, though I personally wouldn’t,
but I can’t imagine rating Google ahead of Apple. Apple isn’t perfect at
services, but I would definitively trust it over Google with my money.

As it stands, Google already has so much information on me, I’ll be damned if
I would ever put my checking account into that. No. Just no.

------
zwkrt
zwkrt’s Tenth Rule of Startups:

Any sufficiently complicated tech company or venture-backed enterprise
contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of
half of a credit union.

------
dreamcompiler
First, who writes checks any more? Second, who the hell wants Google
monitoring their financial transactions [more than they do already]?

This just seems monumentally misguided.

------
fmajid
Even if you don't use their bank services, your financial privacy is not safe.
The had a deal with MasterCard to gain access to credit card transactions:

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-
an...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-and-
mastercard-cut-a-secret-ad-deal-to-track-retail-sales)

------
FpUser
Google did few good things. But now it is trying to substitute The Internet.

Well thanks, but no thanks. I'll stick to my old luddite way of doing things.

------
uoaei
There is no reason for them to do this except to have 100% visibility into
your purchasing behavior. To serve you more ads, better.

------
EasyTiger_
I would be way too stressed out about losing access due to the whims of
google. This is about as tempting as a kick to the sacks.

------
buboard
Is there a history of people who went from entrepreneurship -> industry ->
became rich -> opened a Bank? In older times these would be loan sharks but
have other industrialists done that?

And is this the best use of the mountains of cash that these companies
(google-apple-facebook) have hoarded?

~~~
awad
Financial services as a whole are inherently a large part of the economy so
it's reasonable to see why they're going after it. Warren Buffet attributes a
large part of his success to his insurance interests and the capital (to
invest) made available to Berkshire Hathaway via the float.

There's also the Japanese model of group companies centered around a bank:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiretsu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiretsu)

------
yariik
Well, it's not just channel deletion anymore, soon they'll be able to deny
thought criminals access to their money (in other words, steal their money).

It'll eventually come to the point where thought criminals won't be able to
get police protection or get healthcare.

We live in a society, I guess.

------
mc32
Hopefully they wont lock your accounts if you violate their TOS elsewhere in
their ecosystem...

------
joeyrideout
From a contrarian investing perspective, the number of non-finance companies
branching into finance indicates that we are near the end of this credit
cycle. This is large-scale capitulation.

------
auiya
What is the expected value-added Google intends to provide the banks?

~~~
donalhunt
lower cost of doing business; better user experience¹.

¹ ymmv.

------
40acres
One of the advantages of being a software engineer is that almost every
industry needs software.

One of the scariest things about a potential software monopoly is that every
industry needs software.

------
eiji
Why is it that these gigantic SV companies can't manage to operate a bank?
It's like they don't want to rock that boat.

------
bob_theslob646
Can anyone think of any positives that this may have? All I have read is a ton
of negative comments on this.

------
tracker1
For the same reasons I don't want Facebook to have a new crypto currency,
just, no. While this isn't _as_ bad... I just don't see this as particularly
good. I, personally, think more people should favor smaller, local banks and
credit unions over the large national banks as it is.

------
kerng
I think this is one of those things that just should not be allowed.

------
crb002
They will use this data to create a hedge fund.

------
chrisseaton
A checking account? Literally an account for writing checks from? How many
people are writing checks these days?

~~~
EForEndeavour
Assuming you have money, where do you keep it?

~~~
chrisseaton
In a current account. I don't need to write checks, ever.

~~~
EForEndeavour
That's a synonym for "checking account."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_account](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_account)

------
mmartinson
What are they checking for?

------
sj4nz
Let's write this out in TeX:

$hell^{no}$

------
Doctor_Fegg
Because you should absolutely lose access to your money when Google's
algorithms decide your YouTube comments are spam.

~~~
vorpalhex
The Cast System of 2020:

\+ Those with Amazon Prime and Google

\+ Those with only Google

\+ Those banned from Google

~~~
_jal
\- Heathen refuseniks who refuse to do business with any of them.

~~~
DannyB2
Those people don't exist.

------
NN88
President Elizabeth Warren will put a stop to this.

