Google Pay drops plans to offer Plex bank accounts after drawn-out waitlist

Google will focus on supporting banks.

What you need to know

• Google no longer plans to offer bank accounts.
• The company announced its Plex service last year with the new Google Pay redesign.
• Google plans to continue supporting banks and financial institutions through Google Pay.

After announcing grand plans to offer bank accounts through its new Plex service in Google Pay, the company is now abandoning the undertaking.

The news was first broken on Friday per a tweet from Walter Bloomberg, which is affiliated with Bloomberg news. Sources indicating that the company would no longer offer bank accounts.

Google Abandons Plans to Offer Bank Accounts, Sources Say$GOOG

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) October 1, 2021

A Google spokesperson confirmed the news with Android Central, saying that it is shifting its focus from providing these services itself and will instead continue supporting banks and financial institutions through its app.

Our work with our partners has made it extremely clear that there’s consumer demand for simple, seamless and secure digital payments for online and in-store transactions. We’re updating our approach to focus primarily on delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services.

We strongly believe that this is the best way for Google to help consumers gain better access to financial services and to help the financial services ecosystem connect more deeply with their customers in a digital environment.

Google announced its plans in late 2020 alongside the revamped Google Pay experience. Plex bank accounts were set to be offered this year via a partnership with several banking institutions.

The service would offer checking and savings accounts accessible through Google Pay to easily access organized, searchable transaction history. A debit card and savings goals were also planned for the service.

While customers were encouraged to sign up for the waitlist, updates on the services were scarce, and now we know why.

The spokesperson tells us that this will not affect Google Pay; customers will still be able to use it as they normally do on the best Android phones, including making in-store payments with their Google Pay balance. Users can also continue to link their own bank accounts within Google Pay for easy access to their balance and transactions.