Google announced a new group of bank partners for their checking account, expanding on the initial announcement last year with Citi and Stanford Federal Credit Union; aligning with an innovative brand like Google could be one of the biggest benefits of the partnership; customer experience is another benefit that many of the smaller institutions are citing, they are not able to build an experience anywhere near what Google can build; Ernie Johannson, Group Head of North American Personal and Business Banking at BMO Financial Group, said to American Banker her bank’s partnership with Google fits its strategy of rapid growth in the U.S. market. “This provides us with an ability to access new customers,” Johannson said. “We’ve been focusing on acquiring new customers and doing that in a digital manner. This was a natural next step in that journey.”; many of the details of the partnerships are not fully worked out just yet, and there is also a lot of questions around data privacy and Google’s dominance as a big tech company; one thing is clear, banks of all sizes are looking outside the traditional finance space for new experiences, technology and access to customers. American Banker.
