Goldman Sachs move casts shadow over Apple Savings accounts

AppleInsider

Plans for the Apple Savings program may be jeopardized by troubles with Goldman Sachs' consumer business, as the bank has reportedly dropped its consumer credit card efforts outside of Apple Card.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman CEO David Solomon had wanted the bank to increase its efforts to develop financial services for consumers, such as its Marcus savings account and a planned digital checking account. It also partnered with Apple to launch the consumer Apple Card.

A Goldman-branded credit card would have been the next consumer offering, but a report from CNBC says that the launch of the card has been dropped as the bank deals with losses in its consumer division.

For example, it posted a $1.2 billion loss in 2022 driven mainly by loan-loss provisions. But the Apple Card was also a factor, as Goldman spent a lot of money to launch the card and its other consumer services.

The losses are probably also factoring into the delayed launch of the Apple savings account that the company announced in October. Another reason for the delay might be ongoing investigations from the Federal Reserve and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

An idea of a Goldman credit card reportedly happened in October 2021 asked Solomon about his consumer product roadmap. For example, the bank could've used the Apple Card system infrastructure for the card.

When an analyst inquired about Solomon's consumer product roadmap in October 2021, the concept of a Goldman card reportedly surfaced. According to Solomon, one idea was to share the card technology developed to service Apple Card customers with the Goldman card system.

However, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs said it didn't move further than discussions. "The idea of a consumer-facing proprietary Goldman Sachs credit card was discussed but never became a meaningful part of our strategy."

The move to launch a Goldman credit card would likely be more expensive than a partnership with Apple since it would have to foot the bill by itself to acquire customers and attract their interest with rewards.

Read on AppleInsider

zimmie

I'm a little surprised they might have been planning the savings account with Goldman Sachs. Apple Cash is already a debit account with Green Dot, and I have another account with Green Dot currently paying 4.55% interest.

Mike Wuerthele

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/10/apple-card-will-let-users-grow-daily-cash-rewards-while-saving-for-the-future/

We were surprised too.

iOS_Guy80

Come on Apple just start Apple iBank. Financial institutions don’t know how to Integrate tech into financial ecosystems.b 

lkrupp

Apple should dump Goldman Sachs and let the Apple Card develop into a real credit card. It gets tiring telling users on the Apple Discussion Forums, “No, you can’t do that with the Apple Card. No, the Apple Card doesn’t work with financial software like Quicken. No, you can’t transfer balances with the Apple Card.” It’s a Mastercard, dammit, why not?

mikethemartian

iOS_Guy80 said:

Come on Apple just start Apple iBank. Financial institutions don’t know how to Integrate tech into financial ecosystems.b 

Banking is a highly regulated business and if Apple gets into that business they are going to have to deal with a slew of regulations and regular examinations. I used to work for the FDIC in the early 90s (a job I disliked so much I went back to university to switch to engineering) and we had full access to people’s bank records without any court orders and if the FDIC found anything suspicious in a loan file or deposit records they would just automatically make a referral to the FBI so the idea of privacy is out the window.

chadbag

lkrupp said:

Apple should dump Goldman Sachs and let the Apple Card develop into a real credit card. It gets tiring telling users on the Apple Discussion Forums, “No, you can’t do that with the Apple Card. No, the Apple Card doesn’t work with financial software like Quicken. No, you can’t transfer balances with the Apple Card.” It’s a Mastercard, dammit, why not?

None of those things you mentioned has anything to do with it being a Mastercard.  They are services offered by the issuing/serving bank. Not every credit card I have does balance transfers or allows expert of data to Quicken. 

What is one actual credit card thing you can’t do with Apple Card that Mastercard supports and offers — not dependent on the issuing/servicing bank. 

beowulfschmidt

lkrupp said:

Apple should dump Goldman Sachs and let the Apple Card develop into a real credit card. It gets tiring telling users on the Apple Discussion Forums, “No, you can’t do that with the Apple Card. No, the Apple Card doesn’t work with financial software like Quicken. No, you can’t transfer balances with the Apple Card.” It’s a Mastercard, dammit, why not?

Nitpick, but you can import your Apple Card data into Quicken.  It's a royal PITA, but you can do it.

lkrupp

beowulfschmidt said:

lkrupp said:

Apple should dump Goldman Sachs and let the Apple Card develop into a real credit card. It gets tiring telling users on the Apple Discussion Forums, “No, you can’t do that with the Apple Card. No, the Apple Card doesn’t work with financial software like Quicken. No, you can’t transfer balances with the Apple Card.” It’s a Mastercard, dammit, why not?

Nitpick, but you can import your Apple Card data into Quicken.  It's a royal PITA, but you can do it.

Yeah, nitpick? You know exactly what I’m talking about. You can’t use Quicken Connect to access your Apple Card account for downloads and reconciling of transactions. The GM Mastercard, also now managed by Goldman Sachs, no longer works with Quicken Connect. Goldman Sachs is the common denominator here.