Did Jeff Bezos Want Amazon to Become a Bank?

Ethan Evans says Jeff Bezos always declined pitches to turn Amazon into a bank. People kept pitching finance because Bezos came from D. E. Shaw, Amazon had a billion credit cards on file, and Amazon already had financial relationships with customers. His argument was that finance is well served, a lot of people are already in it, and it is heavily regulated. He tried to avoid heavy regulation because it slowed his ability to do what he wanted.

He was pitched healthcare, and he has dabbled there. Evans was part of a pitch to take Amazon into travel and compete with Expedia or Airbnb on those same customer relationships. Bezos declined. Evans says the choice of what to swing at includes whether a market is highly regulated and whether it is already mature.