Report Delves Into Why Apple and Goldman Sachs Want to Break Up

Recent rumors have suggested that Goldman Sachs is aiming to end its financial partnership with Apple, and The Information today shared a new report on what went wrong and why the relationship between the two companies fell apart.

apple card 1
Goldman Sachs is Apple's partner on the Apple Card, the Apple Savings account that is open to ‌Apple Card‌ users, and Apple Pay Later, Apple's buy now, pay later service that is being beta tested. Apple and Goldman Sachs have worked together since the ‌Apple Card‌ launched in 2019, but the venture is not making Goldman Sachs enough money, and Goldman Sachs' customer service issues with the Apple Savings account are impacting Apple's reputation.

Former employees at both companies who worked on the Apple Card said executives weren't prepared for how difficult it would be to combine Apple's West Coast tech approach with Goldman's New York-style banking culture. While Apple was more focused on the sleek technology and product pizazz that drew in customers and kept them happy, Goldman prioritized regulatory compliance and profitability.

Apple had a lot of demands that were atypical for credit cards and led to development problems ahead of when the ‌Apple Card‌ launched, including billing statements that lined up with calendar month, instant cash back rewards (did not launch), and the design of the physical card and customer agreements.

In one anecdote relayed by The Information, Goldman Sachs and Apple ran into a glaring issue. Apple CEO Tim Cook was testing the service and was not able to get approved for an ‌Apple Card‌. The Goldman Sachs underwriting process rejected his application because he is a high-profile figure that is regularly impersonated, and flags on his credit bureau accounts caused issues.

Goldman Sachs was able to make a one-off exception, but internally, there were other issues that Goldman Sachs was dealing with that eventually led to an investigation by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Goldman Sachs ended up with more disputed transactions than anticipated, and customers were receiving conflicting information or long wait times for dispute resolutions.

Shorty after the ‌Apple Card‌ launched, Goldman Sachs was also investigated for how credit limit increases were provided following reports of gender discrimination. Goldman Sachs was ultimately cleared of gender bias, but the situation created tension with Apple. The company also had issues with inaccurate statements, delayed payment postings, and problems with credit reports.

Goldman Sachs is now aiming to get away from consumer banking. It wanted to hand the Apple partnership over to American Express, but ‌Apple Card‌ has to run on the Mastercard network until at least 2026 according to a deal Apple and Goldman Sachs established, and American Express has its own payment network. Apple also has to approve any new partner, and sources that spoke to The Information have suggested that few companies would be willing to agree to Apple's terms.

Because Goldman Sachs was new to consumer banking and was eager to establish a deal with Apple, it is not collecting fees that it would typically get in a partnership for a credit card. Goldman Sachs does not get a portion of the fee that merchants pay to Apple to accept the ‌Apple Card‌. Retailers pay a percentage of each transaction when taking a credit or debit card payment, and Goldman Sachs gets no funding from this.

Goldman Sachs is unable to collect annual fees, late fees, or fees for foreign transactions because the ‌Apple Card‌ does not charge these fees. Apple does pay for the Daily Cash that users earn, and Goldman Sachs is able to earn money from loans issued to cardholders who split Apple product purchases into installments, but it is not making enough for the deal to be appealing to a new partner.

Apple could decide to partner with a lesser-known bank to handle the regulatory functions while Apple takes over underwriting, fraud prevention, and customer service, but it is not yet clear if that will happen. The Information does not believe that Apple and Goldman Sachs will be able to maintain their relationship, and the report suggests that it could take around 18 months to dissolve the partnership.

More details about the relationship between Apple and Goldman Sachs can be found in The Information's full report.

Popular Stories

Apple One Apps Feature 2

Apple One's Best Plan Now Includes Two More Perks For Free

Monday March 10, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Apple One allows you to subscribe to up to six Apple services for one discounted monthly price. There are three Apple One tiers: Individual, Family, and Premier. Over the last month, the highest-end ‌Apple One‌ Premier plan has gained two additional perks. Here is what Apple One Premier already included, for $37.95 per month:Apple Music Apple TV+ Apple Arcade Apple News+ Apple Fitness+...
iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

iPhone 17 Air and 17 Pro Max Allegedly Same Size Apart From Thickness

Friday March 7, 2025 2:45 am PST by
Apple's all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air shares the same dimensions as the iPhone 17 Pro Max, with the only difference being in the thickness of the devices, according to the leaker Ice Universe. Posting to their Weibo account, the Chinese leaker today claimed that the iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max have identical body length, width, screen size, and bezels. "The only difference is the...
2016 12 inch macbook feature

Apple Introduced Its Most Controversial MacBook 10 Years Ago Today

Sunday March 9, 2025 1:00 am PST by
Apple announced the infamous 12-inch Retina MacBook a decade ago today, an experimental new Mac that was as controversial as it was revolutionary. Apple unveiled the 12-inch MacBook on March 9, 2015, at the "Spring Forward" event in San Francisco, California. The event was primarily focused on the Apple Watch, which was being fully detailed ahead of its launch the following month, so the...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Will Bring Biggest Design Overhaul Since iOS 7

Monday March 10, 2025 12:17 pm PDT by
Apple is planning for a major design overhaul of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac interfaces with the introduction of iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16 later this year, reports Bloomberg. The update will "fundamentally change" the look of Apple's operating system, introducing a more consistent cross-platform experience. Apple plans to update the style of icons, menus, apps, windows, and system...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 8 New Features

Tuesday March 4, 2025 3:15 pm PST by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro's alleged design via Front Page Tech Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone...
iphone 17 mockups idevicehelp

Video Shows iPhone 17 Mockups Based on 'Internal Documents'

Monday March 10, 2025 4:41 am PDT by
YouTuber iDeviceHelp on Friday posted a video that shows off mockups of Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 models that are purportedly based on "internal documents." We're sharing the video here since it was made in collaboration with leaker Majin Bu, who last month published similar iPhone 17 renders that were widely corroborated by separate leakers with links to Apple's Chinese supply chain....
iphone 17 pro asherdipps

iPhone 17 Pro Max Said to Be Thicker to Accommodate Larger Battery

Friday March 7, 2025 2:47 am PST by
Apple has increased the thickness of the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro Max compared to the current generation iPhone 16 Pro Max, claims the Chinese leaker known as Ice Universe. Apple is said to have increased the depth of the iPhone 17 Pro Max to 8.725mm, up from 8.25mm on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which would be a 0.475mm difference in thickness. The increase "surely means a larger battery,"...
Apple MacBook Air hero

New MacBook Air Quietly Fixes This Decades-Long Design Oversight

Friday March 7, 2025 6:58 am PST by
In a move that probably won't make headlines but should delight detail-oriented Mac users everywhere, Apple has quietly corrected a 26-year-old design inconsistency on its keyboards. The Mute key, a staple on Mac keyboards since the PowerBook G3 'Lombard' debuted in 1999, has finally received a logical redesign on the new MacBook Air with M4 chip. As spotted by iCulture, the key now displays ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature

Apple Delays Apple Intelligence Siri Features

Friday March 7, 2025 9:35 am PST by
Apple is delaying some of the Apple Intelligence Siri features that it expected to release in iOS 18, an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to Daring Fireball. Apple says that it is going to take longer than expected to roll out the more personalized Siri experience, and that these features will be rolled out "in the coming year.""Siri helps our users find what they need and get things...

Top Rated Comments

jaw04005 Avatar
21 months ago

Most of this just sounds like GS wasn't anticipating the volume of transactions involved - and maybe the expectations weren't correctly spelled out by Apple ahead of time.
Really? I read it more as Goldman Sachs wanted Apple Card to be just as anti-consumer as every other credit card offered and Apple said no.

Apple should have known when dealing with these clowns. How many of you have credit cards that encourage you to pay more than the minimum? Most of them hide everything—especially in their apps. Apple Card, while not perfect, is pretty straight forward.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
21 months ago
"Goldman prioritized regulatory compliance and profitability."

This is where Goldman Sachs went wrong. They do not care about the customers and their customer service is horrible. American Express please take over!
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DocMultimedia Avatar
21 months ago
Time for Apple to start a bank.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bigjnyc Avatar
21 months ago

Goldman Sachs does not get a portion of the fee that merchants pay to Apple to accept the ‌Apple Card‌.
What!?! How tf did a world renowned investment bank known for structuring some of the most complex deals in the industry, get this bamboozled by a bunch of Silicon Valley nerds?
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GMShadow Avatar
21 months ago
I do wonder what Goldman's motivation for going ahead with the launch of the savings accounts was - if they were already looking to exit their partnership, that would seem to make it harder to do.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JPack Avatar
21 months ago
Apple Card serves as a loss leader to keep customers in the ecosystem and encourage buying Apple hardware. Great for Apple but there is no such benefit for card issuers.

The Card is analogous to selling Apple TV 4K for $129. It's basically a really cheap Mac in terms of hardware. Apple can sell it because of ongoing Apple TV+ service revenue. Banks can't do the same.

No annual fees, late fees, or fees for foreign transactions, plus high yield savings. Like it or not, banks gotta eat too.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)