Google teams with more banks in offering digital accounts

Complimentary Access Pill
Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

Five more banks, including BBVA USA in Birmingham, Ala., and BMO Harris Bank in Chicago, and one credit union announced Monday that they will be offering digital banks accounts in partnership with Google.

The others are the Coastal Community Bank in Everett, Wash., First Independence Bank in Detroit, BankMobile, the mobile-first unit of Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., and SEFCU in Albany, N.Y. The six financial firms will join Citigroup and Stanford Federal Credit in Palo Alto, Calif., in offering Google-branded checking accounts that will be processed using the banks' existing infrastructure and and will be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

google-istock-73584653-xlarge.jpg

The accounts will be offered through Google Pay. Google will provide the customer interface and insights, the banks will hold the deposits and service the accounts.

In its announcerment, BBVA said the collaboration "underscores BBVA’s strategy to continue organically growing the bank throughout the U.S., even as it deepens its transformation and capitalizes on the innovations that have changed the way it does business."

Luvleen Sidhu, co-founder and CEO of BankMobile, said the arrangement will offer customers a better experience.

“Today, BankMobile serves approximately one in every three college students through our relationship with about 800 campuses across the country,” Sidhu said in a press release. “By collaborating with Google, we can provide millions of college students across America with an even better banking experience to help them manage, save and grow their money.”

The firms said they expect to roll out the new accounts in 2021.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Digital banking Digital Banking 2020 Mobile banking Online banking Google BBVA
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER