Google shuts down Plex banking service after less than a year

Google’s graveyard is getting more and more crowded. After announcing Plex mobile first bank accounts in November of last year with Citibank and a few other financial institutions, Google is pulling out of the product. According to the Wall Street newspaper, the company “abandons its plan to offer bank accounts to its users”.

A Google spokesperson told Engadget that it is “updating our approach to focus primarily on providing digital empowerment to banks and other financial service providers rather than serving us as a provider of these. services”.

Plex was initially positioned as an easy way to open bank accounts, first mobile, with Google providing the technology and app design and banks and credit providers supporting finance. It felt more like a way to help institutions that didn’t yet have a modern and competent app to partner with Google, which might explain why big names like Bank of America and Capital One, which already had ‘existing applications were not on the list of partners.

According to Newspaper, a Citibank spokesperson said he plans to recommend other accounts to people who have already signed up on the Plex waitlist. The publication reports that the waiting list was around 400,000 people and that the pandemic had delayed plans. The Newspaper also noted that “Again this week, several banks felt that the project would continue to move forward.”

Although the Plex brand is disappearing, Google seems to want to stay in the financial services industry. The spokesperson said, “We firmly believe this is the best way for Google to help consumers have better access to financial services and to help the financial services ecosystem connect more deeply with their customers. customers in a digital environment. ”

It might not be a complete abandonment, but Plex joins a long list of other Google products that have been canceled or discontinued, like the Home Max speaker, Clips camera, Google+ and more.