Apple and Goldman Sachs are expected to end their Apple Card partnership sometime in the next 12 to 15 months. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes Chase Bank could be the ideal candidate to step in and take over the Goldman Sachs role.
Gurman made the comments in his weekly PowerOn newsletter on Sunday. Gurman says that since JPMorgan Chase & Co already works with Apple on several financial initiatives, Chase “makes more sense” than other possible Apple Card partners, such as American Express.
The bank currently handles a number of roles for Apple, including:
- Storing some of the tech company’s roughly $60 billion in cash on hand.
- Serving as one of the earliest and most successful Apple Pay partners.
- Teaming up with Apple on its Ultimate Rewards program, which offers discounts on Apple devices to its banking and credit card customers.
- And, of course, serving as one of the biggest credit card partners for transactions at Apple retail outlets, online store and the App Store.
Chase has something else going for it: It offers credit cards that use the MasterCard network. That’s the same system that powers the Apple Card, meaning there’d be no need to switch to the Visa or American Express platforms.
Chase is one of the banks holding Apple’s $60 billion in cash, and offers an Ultimate Rewards program that provides discounts on Apple products to Chase customers.
While Chase, American Express, and Citigroup all initially said now to an Apple Card partnership, they all could be interested, now that the Apple Card has millions of users.
One possible drawback for Apple if they end up working with Chase is that the Apple Savings account might have to be terminated or Apple will need to find a separate partner to handle it. Chase does not offer high-yield savings accounts such as the 4.5% return rate the Apple Savings account currently offers via Goldman Sachs.
