Google to become Next FinTech Vendor

FinTech, an amalgamation of finance and technology, is fast leading a new way to the future of the financial landscape. Today, the sector is reimagining almost every aspect of financial operations as financial institutions are increasingly seeking to deliver improved services. Now it seems that big tech firms may get into the fintech as companies from Google to Apple are looking to take on the industry.

Recent activities from the search engine Google show that the company is on the way to become the next fintech vendor. The company plans to introduce consumer bank accounts later this year in partnership with Citibank and a California-based credit union. Last month, it was reported that the company is planning to launch its own debit card. This new offering will enable users to make their purchases with a card, mobile phone or online. It reportedly connects to a Google app with new features allowing users to easily monitor their purchases, check balance, or lock their accounts.

According to reports, the Google card and account is set to be launched in the US, and features branding involving both Citi and Stanford Federal Credit Union.

For lenders, servicers and processors that are struggling to handle current intake volumes of PPP loan requests, Google Cloud is offering the PPP Lending AI Solution. This intends to help lenders easily and securely integrate underwriting components into their existing lending systems enabling them to stimulate and automate the process of handling the voluminous increase in loan applications.

Google already made its footprint in financial services by introducing Google Pay, which is expected to reach 100 million users by 2020. In March this year, the company’s cloud wing, Google Cloud, has forged a five-year deal with Lloyds Banking Group, part of the UK bank's commitment to spend £3 billion on digital transformation projects. Reportedly, the agreement will see Lloyds implementation of a number of Google Cloud services to assist in streamlining and modernizing the customer experience for its 26 million users.

“The size of our digital transformation is huge and Google Cloud’s capabilities will help drive this forward, increasing the pace of innovation, as well as bringing new services to our customers quickly and at scale. This collaboration gives us a strategic advantage to continue as a leader in banking technology,” Zaka Mian, group transformation director, Lloyds Banking Group said.

Moreover, reports also claim that the search engine giant seeks to capitalize on people’s banking data to optimize its core competencies specifically advertising. By garnering users’ online behavior, with transaction data, Google could create an effective prediction engine. However, some industry experts believe that the company will not become a bank, while some consider that it will continue to add services that are peripheral to banking to their existing offerings, without going full-stack banking.