Apple and Goldman Sachs Reportedly Developing Joint Credit Card with Special iPhone Features

Apple and investment bank Goldman Sachs are reportedly planning to launch a joint credit card at some point later this year.

According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter, Apple has teamed up with Goldman Sachs and together, the companies will release a joint credit card to consumers later this year.

A wider rollout to consumers will come later this year, according to the Journal. The card will pair with new iPhone software features that will help users manage their finances, the newspaper said.

The card will use Mastercard’s network, the WSJ reported. Additionally, card users are expected about 2 percent in cash back on the majority of purchases, the report said, with possibly greater returns for purchases of Apple products. Beyond the bonuses, the report says Apple and Goldman Sachs hope to attract users with extra features in the technology company’s Wallet application, such as tracking rewards and spending, as well as managing account balances.

“Executives have discussed borrowing visual cues from Apple‘s fitness-tracking app, where “rings” close as users hit daily exercise targets, and sending users notifications about their spending habits,” reads the report. “There also could be notifications based on analysis of cardholders’ spending patterns, alerting them for example if they paid more than usual for groceries one week.”

Recently, Apple has sought to move beyond hardware and gain more recurring revenues and fees stemming from its services division. The company has targeted a goal of $50 billion USD in services revenues by 2020.



In terms of card payments, the company now gets a percentage of transactions made with Apple Pay. But with its own (and in this case, with Goldman) card offering, swipe fees would increase — and ostensibly, Apple Pay would see greater adoption among end users and the merchants who accept Apple Pay.

Bloomberg reported last May that Apple and Goldman were developing a co-branded credit card as a way for the investment bank to deepen its push into consumer finance. Goldman, which has been expanding into the field through its Marcus unit, has been planning a deeper foray into the world of co-branded cards, a space that’s become increasingly competitive as banks ratchet up rewards to win business with retailers.

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