Amazon may soon offer bank accounts to its customers

Nothing stops the tech giants. According to information obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon would think of getting into retail banking. The US e-commerce site would be in discussions with various institutions like JPMorgan Chase to get into the sector.

However, traditional banks can still sleep on their two ears. For the moment, Amazon does not wish to become a full-fledged bank but to form partnerships to offer its customers a service that is close to a current account.

Lower transaction costs and data

With this offer, Amazon would particularly like to address young people and those who do not have bank accounts. It would also be a way for the company to reduce transaction fees it pays to financial institutions when a customer makes a purchase on its site. And we must not forget the valuable data that Amazon could recover by setting up such a service, such as information on the income of its customers and the type of expenses they perform.

Bulimia of services

If for the moment this project is only at the stage of discussions, the incursions of Amazon in banking services do not date from today, even if some are not necessarily visible of the general public. Last year, the US giant announced having passed the threshold of $ 3 billion in loans granted in cumulative to more than 20 000 SMEs since the launch of its Amazon Lending program created in 2011. Via the latter, the company offers a small business loan service that uses its Marketplace platform to sell their products. In early 2017, the Seattle firm also launched a Visa credit card for its premium subscribers and issued by JPMorgan Chase. As a reminder, in health,Amazon has already partnered with JP Morgan Chase, along with Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm of billionaire Warren Buffett , to develop an offering for all of their employees to reduce the costs of access to healthcare.