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Google will offer current accounts to individuals next year, according to information from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Reuters

Starting in 2020, it will be possible to open Google-stamped current accounts. The mastodon of Silicon Valley joins the other giants of Gafa in the race for innovation in the financial sector.

The year 2020 could mark a turning point in the history of Google . The giant Silicon Valley will indeed offer current accounts to individuals, according to an article published Thursday, November 13 in the Wall Street Journal . By partnering with the American bank Citigroup and a credit cooperative of Stanford University, Google launches its project "Cache" and shares with the other giants of Gafa (Apple, Facebook and Amazon) to attack banks and finance.

Banks and Gafa: an exchange of good practices

Google partners with Citibank to offer current accounts, Apple to Goldman Sachs for the Apple Card credit card. Cooperating with banks allows the Gafa not to handle thorny technical and regulatory issues, particularly complex in the financial community.

For their part, banks cooperate with giants of technology and try to adapt their offers. Their goal then is to remain competitive in a market where they struggle to recruit new customers and online competitors grow exponentially. Thus, the Nobanque N26 has more than one million customers in France after only three years of existence.

Some experts see the development of online payment platforms, credit cards and cryptocurrency by technology giants, a possible response to the non-banking of almost half of the world's population.

Alliances that worry

These alliances between the banks and the behemoths of the technologies do not fail to worry. Some experts are suspicious and see these projects as a potential threat to the bonds of trust that unite them with their clients.

Others think that Gafa could be tempted to apply Bill Gates' famous quote " Banking is necessary, banks are not " and so take over the banks in the finance sector. However, this seems to be only at the stage of suppositions, since such a project requires a large legal arsenal and particularly sharp skills that the giants of technology do not yet possess.

The sensitive issue of data

Credit cards by Apple and Amazon, a probable future cryptocurrency by Facebook and tomorrow bank accounts by Google: little by little, the Gafa diversify and settle in the finance sector. Arrivals source of great fears on the side of justice and citizens who fear a massive recovery of users' banking data. This information could later be resold for advertising purposes or be used to offer consumer credit closer to the needs of customers.

While the Gafa defend themselves, doubts remain. Thus, Google ensures that it will establish a separation between banking data and other information collected on its platforms, as is already the case with the Google Pay payment platform, but the reliability of its statements is undermined by the news. The day before, Tuesday, November 12, another data management scandal was shaking the behemoth of Silicon Valley. The Wall Street Journal revealed that Google had access to health information from 50 million patients without their consent.

Another judicial strain that could slow down the arrival of Gafa in the financial sector: suspicions about anti-competitive practices. In the case of Google, the company has been repeatedly sued for abuse of dominant position , including its Android system that equips more than 90% of devices market.