Apple has inked a partnership with banking giant Goldman Sachs to offer savings accounts for its Apple Card credit cardholders. The move is part of the tech giant’s foray into the financial services industry, which it believes will help fuel growth in coming years.
Apple to Offer Savings Accounts to Card Holders
Apple has teamed up with Goldman Sachs to offer new high-yield savings accounts for its Apple Card credit cardholders. The new feature will allow users to save and grow their “Daily Cash,” the cashback rewards that users earn when they purchase using their Apple Cards. The company said in a press release:
“Apple Card users will be able to open the new high-yield savings account and have their daily cash automatically deposited into it — with no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements.”
The high-yield savings account would give Apple an edge over competitors, particularly since there will be no fees, minimum deposits, or minimum balance requirements. Notably, Apple did not disclose what interest rate it would pay out to users, but the APY is expected to be in the range of 2.20%-3.05%.
Once launched, Apple Card holders will be able to set up this high-yield savings account using their Apple Wallet mobile app. All “Daily Cash” rewards would also be automatically deposited into this account, Apple said, adding that users would have the option to receive deposits into their Apple Cash card in Wallet.
The tech giant did not disclose the exact launch date for the feature, but said it would enter the market in the “coming months.” Apple said the savings account feature will ship with an upcoming iOS release. Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said:
“Savings enables Apple Card users to grow their Daily Cash rewards over time, while also saving for the future. Savings delivers even more value to users’ favorite Apple Card benefit — Daily Cash — while offering another easy-to-use tool designed to help users lead healthier financial lives.”
Apple Doubles Down on its Financial Services to Fuel Growth
Apple has been building a foundation to scale its payments business in a bid to further fuel its growth. The financial services already contribute more than 20% of Apple’s revenue, up from less than 10% in 2015, according to Business Standard.
As reported, Apple announced its buy now, pay later (BNPL) service as part of its new operating system, iOS 16, in early June during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The service will allow users to make a purchase through Apple Pay and pay the amount in four installments over the course of six weeks with no interest.
Notably, Apple aims to handle the lending for the new BNPL service itself. The tech giant’s subsidiary, called Apple Financing LLC, has necessary state lending licenses and will do credit checks and make loan decisions. However, this product has taken longer than expected to reach the market.
In late March, Bloomberg talked about Apple’s secret initiative dubbed “Breakout,” which simply refers to the idea of breaking away from the existing financial system. As part of that move, Apple reportedly plans to replace CoreCard, the core processor of Apple Cards, with its own payment processing engine.
Meanwhile, as Apple is aggressively expanding its range of financial products, the company might also be considering launching cryptoelated products. Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in late 2021 that the company was looking into cryptocurrency, but said they had no “immediate” plans for cryptoelated products. He said:
“I would sort of characterize it as there are things I wouldn’t do — like our cash balance. I wouldn’t go invest that in crypto — not because I wouldn’t invest my own money in crypto — but because I don’t think people buy an Apple stock to get exposure to crypto.”
Apple’s stock rallied on the news regarding upcoming savings accounts, finishing the latest trading day up by 3.36%. The company’s shares are largely flat currently in pre-market, down by a mere 0.06%.
This article originally appeared on The Tokenist
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