Sterling Partners with Google Pay to Expand Digital Banking

Sterling National Bank has confirmed it is working with Google to offer digital checking and savings accounts.

The bank is the latest to collaborate with Google Pay, which enables customers to access fully digital banking from opening accounts to processing payments.

It follows Canadian bank BMO Financial Group’s announcement last summer that it was to use Google Pay as the platform for new digital checking accounts.

The digital checking accounts were to be built on BMO’s existing infrastructure, with Google providing the front-end technology and user interface.

Around the same time as BMO’s announcement, BankMobile and Coastal Community Bank also confirmed similar deals with Google Pay to launch accounts in 2021.

Data from Statista and LearnBonds.com show that Google Pay and its rival ApplePay hold a 99% share of the ‘digital wallet’ market between them in the US and Europe as a result of the predominance of the iOS and Android operating systems for smartphones.

Announcing the Google partnership, Sterling highlighted key features such as real-time balance updates, transaction and purchase alerts, no monthly account fees or minimum balance requirements, and frictionless account opening.

Luis Massiani, Sterling National Bank president, said that these accounts would provide an “exceptional, mobile-first experience” that would enable the bank to expand its reach to a new generation of clients, “while enhancing and deepening existing relationships”.

He added: “This is a truly exciting time for our company, as we continue to transform through innovation in technology and strategic partnerships.”

Felix Lin, vice president of payments ecosystems at Google, said customers were “increasingly looking for ways to simply and securely manage their money”. Working with the likes of Sterling National Bank paved the way for customers to “introduce a smarter way to bank, manage their finances and stay on top of their spending all from within Google Pay”, he added.