Goldman Sachs is seeking to end its Apple Card partnership with Apply before their contract expires.
According to a report from Reuters, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told analysts in an earnings call on Wednesday that there’s “some possibility” the company’s credit card deal with the Silicon Valley giant could come to an end before their contract runs out in 2030. This comes after a Wall Street Journal report from November 2023 saying the deal would end within 12 to 15 months, as the bank wants out of the consumer business.
“We have a contract with Apple to run that partnership until 2030, although there’s some possibility that it won’t continue until that time frame,” Soloman said.
Goldman Sachs entered the partnership with Apple when it launched the Apple Card in 2019, which has since gained over 12 million users as of last year. The credit card partnership turned out to be a troubled one, as it caused a laundry list of issues for the bank, including intense regulatory scrutiny, customer service problems over billing, and a net loss $1 billion last January. The billing part was due to Apple’s insistence on sending out credit card bills to everybody at the beginning of every month rather than on a rolling basis like most credit card companies.
The problems that arose from the Apple Card partnership caused Goldman Sachs to find ways out of the deal, including talking to American Express and JPMorgan Chase about taking over the Apple Card. Meanwhile, Apple had been in talks with Synchrony Financial, Capital One and Chase about the same thing. The 15-month mark for Goldman Sachs to end the Apple Card partnership comes up in February. We’ll see what happens then.
