Google Suspends Plans for Google Pay-based Banking Service

Google has stopped working on its Plex service, which was intended to allow you to bank through the Google Pay app. The service was supposed to allow users to sign up for checking or savings accounts offered by a variety of traditional banks that the user would then manage through the app. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Google cancelled the project due to a series of missed deadlines and because an executive who lobbied for the project left the company.

Plex was not intended to put Google in direct competition with banks, according to reports that were released before the company revealed the program and the information in its official announcement. Instead, Google planned to partner with a variety of financial institutions that would have provided accounts with no monthly or overdraft fees and no minimum balances. Like other online banks, the Google app would have allowed users to set things like savings goals and automatic transfers. Some of the banks Google planned to partner with included Citi and SEFCU.

In an email on Friday, Google told The Verge that it still believes there is a demand from consumers for simpler ways to pay for things while shopping both online and in-person, but that it will now focus on "providing digital enablement for banks and other service providers rather than us serving as providers of these services. " So we may see some of the Plex features appear in Google Pay at some point, or we may see Google continuing to work on its redesigned Google Pay app.

While there are still other options for people who want online banking with decent apps, it is unfortunate to see this project being cancelled by Google. Not only would it have provided an incentive for more traditional banks to step up their mobile app game, but a great feature like this that was removed prior to launch doesn't help Google's reputation for not sticking with the products it launches. Still, Google better stops you now if you don't commit to As a former Google Wallet debit cardholder, I can say from personal experience that having to deal with changing the way you pay for things is a lot more complicated than, say, having to find a new way to read RSS.