Description: In last week’s Wiley Accounting Weekly Updates you would have seen a story on the new Apple credit card. This week it’s Google hitting the news, with its announcement that it will be moving into chequing accounts. Google is adopting a strategy of putting its banking partners up front in this venture, differentiating it from Apple with its ads that the Apple credit card was “designed by Apple, not a bank.” Apple’s approach was not well received by its banking partner Goldman Sachs.

Date:  November 13, 2019

Source:  thestar.com; wsj.com

Link: https://www.thestar.com/wsj/business/2019/11/13/next-in-googles-quest-for-consumer-dominancebanking.html?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=760BE779956395955CFBBA5C497D22A3&utm_campaign=wsj_17897&utm_content=a&source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&wul=tre&utm_medium=emailutm_email=760BE779956395955CFBBA5C497D22A3&utm_campaign=wsj_17897&utm_content=a07

Discussion points:

1) Why do you think the big tech companies are so interested to move into financial services?

2) If you were an accounting executive at a financial institution, what strategies might you recommend to deal with the threat posed by the tech companies entering their world?

3) P13-8B on page 755 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making asks the question “Why do you think Microsoft has paid out dividends while Google has not”? What do you think?