Google will start checking whether financial advertisers are authorized by regulators in the US and Canada in early 2027, which could mean fewer fake bank ads.
Google plans to bring its Financial Services Verification program to the United States and Canada in early 2027. Advertisers who want to run certain financial ads will have to prove that a regulator or an official registry has authorized them. The goal is to stop scammers from posing as real banks and lenders in ads.
Google already checks the identity of advertisers. The company says more than 97% of the ads people see on Google in the US and Canada come from identity-verified advertisers. The new program adds a second check on top. It looks at whether the advertiser holds the right credentials to offer financial services.
The program is not new everywhere. Google says it started in the United Kingdom in 2021, then expanded across the European Union. It now covers about 2 billion internet users in 42 countries.
Fake ads for checking accounts and credit cards are a common way to steal money and personal details. A scammer can copy a bank's name and look, then send you to a lookalike site. Checking credentials up front is meant to keep those ads from running at all.
Google also says its systems, helped by its Gemini AI, caught over 99% of ads that broke its rules before they ran in 2025. That is a high number, but it still leaves room for some bad ads to slip through.
In the US, Google says it is working with the American Bankers Association and will use its registry to verify authorized banks. In Canada, it is talking with the Canadian Bankers Association as it prepares. Google says it will roll out in phases because rules differ by country.
Nothing in the announcement asks everyday users to change a setting or sign up for anything. The steps in the alert box above are the practical part. The main habit is simple: go to your bank on your own instead of trusting an ad, and do not wait for 2027 to be careful.
Before the rollout, Google says it will publish country-specific details for advertisers. These will cover accepted registries, required credentials and how to get started. Advertisers will be told if and when they need to complete verification.
Several things are not yet clear. Google has not given an exact start date beyond early 2027. It has not said which financial ads count as the ones that need checking. It also has not said how many scam ads the change will stop.
Google's new checks are coming in early 2027, so until then, open your bank's website yourself instead of trusting a financial ad.
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