Google Pay eyes credit ecosystem beyond payments

Google Pay has been distributing personal loans on behalf of its lending partners for several years and has now expanded its product suite to include credit cards.

- Anshika Kayastha

The credit card is currently available to select customers and will be rolled out more widely later.

(ISTOCKPHOTO)

However, while personal loans are a third-party product, the credit card launch is the first native product introduced by the payments giant, which aims to go beyond distribution and create a credit ecosystem on the platform.

“We're not doing this simply because we have distribution power. If that was the case, I would have gone and signed up with a whole bunch of lenders three years ago,” said Sharath Bulusu, senior director of product management at Google Pay or GPay.

Bulusu views the credit card launch as an extension of the personal loan offering and an additional product within GPay’s credit ecosystem. Started with one lending partner, the platform today sells personal loans on behalf of four banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs).