Amazon, Google Forays Into Banking Seen as Threat by RBC’s CEO
(Bloomberg) -- Royal Bank of Canada's Dave McKay is feeling the bite of the FANGs.
The lender's chief executive officer told investors on Tuesday that he's increasingly worried about the so-called FANG companies -- Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. -- getting into banking. The companies are already inserting themselves between the bank and its customers as people increasingly turn to the technology giants when shopping for financial services, McKay said.
“They are getting between us and the moments of truth of our customers, and currently what they do with that is they sell that insight back to us in the form of search and advertising and other perspectives, and they earn a certain amount of economic rent,” McKay said at the RBC Financial Institutions Conference in New York. The amount of money tech companies are seeking from banks “is growing,” he said.
The finance industry has become increasingly concerned that major tech companies might try to sideline banks by handling more of their customers' payments, offering loans or accepting deposits -- even if those services open them up to more regulation. McKay said his goal is to build out services that allow Royal Bank to be a bigger part of a customer's life before they have to make a financial choice.
“I do get calls from the FANGs after I do these events,” McKay said. “Moving higher up in the funnel of decision-making and life moments before the financing decision or before the banking decision is mission-critical in us taking control in that journey and not being beholden to somebody else's platform.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, Steve Dickson
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
