The Bank of Google. Does every big tech giant want to be a bank? Maybe… Probably!

By Ilias Louis Hatzis on The Capital

In 1994, Bill Gates said: “We need banking, but we don’t need banks anymore.” So why hasn’t Bill Gates opened a bank? Well, because technology giants don’t really want to be banks. Banking has a lot of the audit and compliance overhead, that tech giants don’t need or want. Big tech companies, Microsoft and GAFAs (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon), want data and want to figure out how to turn it into insights to sell products. Some call it “Surveillance Capitalism.” Yet, banks are sitting on a data gem that tech giants want.

Big banks know they need to change with the times. This is the reason that many banks are partnering with big tech or buying smaller digital-savvy startup competitors. The logic behind partnerships is simple. Banks can unlock the tech competencies of companies like Apple, Google, or Square and catch up quickly, without having to build them internally.

Last year, Google announced that it will be launching checking accounts through a partnership with Citigroup, Stanford Federal Credit Union.

While Google is not planning on getting into the financial services game, it does appear to be interested in partnering with banks. Google teamed up with KBC Bank…