Goldman Reportedly Wants to Hand Off Apple Card to Amex

Goldman Sachs’ credit card partnership with Apple could be nearing an end.

The banking giant is said to be in discussions with American Express to take over the credit card and other collaborations between Goldman and Apple, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday (June 30), citing sources familiar with the matter.

PYMNTS has reached out to Apple and American Express for comment but has not yet received a reply. A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

As the WSJ notes, Goldman announced plans late last year to scale back its consumer banking offerings, though its agreement with Apple apparently remained untouched. In fact, the companies deepened their partnership even as Goldman moved away from consumer banking. Apple debuted a new savings account in April, as well as a recent venture into the buy now, pay later (BNPL) sector with Apple Pay Later.

But now, sources tell the WSJ that Goldman wants to hand over those businesses and its credit card partnership to American Express. Some of the sources said the Wall Street giant has also talked about moving its card partnership with General Motors to Amex as well.

According to the report, sources familiar with the conversations say a Goldman/Amex deal isn’t certain, and could take a long time to play out, and would require Apple’s approval.

The news follows reports from last month Goldman was examining strategic alternatives for its consumer arm and its installment lending unit GreenSky, and had received bids from Apollo Global, Sixth Street, and Warburg Pincus.

As PYMNTS wrote earlier this year, Goldman’s refashioning of its digital banking efforts illustrates just how hard it is to become a digital bank. At least one that offers a broad gamut of banking products, including high-yield savings and lending products.

And last, PYMNTS examined the troubles early adopters of Apple’s savings account were facing, as some of these customers were having difficulty moving their money out of Apple’s much-heralded high-yield savings accounts within reasonable time limits, with some transfers taking weeks to go through. 

The report noted that the delays could be the result additional review required by anti-money laundering and other security rules. It’s the type of thing that is common when large transfers are made from new accounts, which all applies to Apple’s savings accounts which just launched in April.

“Simply put, the jump from traditional financial institution (FI) to non-bank focused FinTech may be too much for some,” PYMNTS wrote. “As evidenced in the PYMNTS collaboration with Treasury Prime, “How Customers Use Digital Banks,” the widespread adoption of digital-only banking alone has been a slow transition.”

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