REPORT: Amazon To Offer “Prime Checking Account”

Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is currently in talks with several of the country’s largest banks to launch a checking-account-like product, in what appears to be Bezos’ initial foray into yet another industry, perhaps the biggest of them all: banking.

Though plans are still in their early stages, the talks with financial firms are focused on creating a product that would appeal to younger customers and those without bank accounts. Whatever its final form, the initiative “wouldn’t involve Amazon becoming a bank” WSJ sources explained, which is somewhat since that is precisely what Amazon hopes to become by offering checking accounts, with loans to follow and iBanking services and prop trading on deck next.

Amazon already offers an Amazon-branded Visa card that, among other benefits, allows customers to save money on purchases at Whole Foods, and on Amazon’s store, with a 5% cash back on Prime purchases. A checking account would only further entrench the Seattle-based e-commerce giant in the lives of its customers. read more