Apple Working To Bring More Financial Services In-House (bloomberg.com) 16
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple is developing its own payment processing technology and infrastructure for future financial products, part of an ambitious effort that would reduce its reliance on outside partners over time, according to people with knowledge of the matter. A multiyear plan would bring a wide range of financial tasks in-house, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't public. That includes payment processing, risk assessment for lending, fraud analysis, credit checks and additional customer-service functions such as the handling of disputes.
The push would turn the company into a bigger force in financial services, building on a lineup that already includes an Apple-branded credit card, peer-to-peer payments, the Wallet app and a mechanism for merchants to accept credit cards from an iPhone. Apple is also working on its own subscription service for hardware and a "buy now, pay later" feature for Apple Pay transactions, Bloomberg has reported. Part of the project has been dubbed "Breakout" internally, underscoring the idea of breaking away from the existing financial system, according to the people.
The push would turn the company into a bigger force in financial services, building on a lineup that already includes an Apple-branded credit card, peer-to-peer payments, the Wallet app and a mechanism for merchants to accept credit cards from an iPhone. Apple is also working on its own subscription service for hardware and a "buy now, pay later" feature for Apple Pay transactions, Bloomberg has reported. Part of the project has been dubbed "Breakout" internally, underscoring the idea of breaking away from the existing financial system, according to the people.
Credit card companies should be worried ... (Score:2)
Credit card cooperation with Apple was always a poison pill.
Apple will take everyone's lunch, getting a couple percent on every purchase online, with credit or even debit (banks pay ridiculous amounts of money to get Apple pay support). Apple's stock is still undervalued IMO.
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Everything you hate about banks and credit card companies will transfer directly to Apple.
That will mark the end (Score:2)
...at least it will mark the end of me using Apple products. "Customer Service", "Dispute Resolution", "Risk Management"...!? Not things I would consider to be Apple's strong suite as a starting point. Maybe not as bad of an idea as the Apple Car, but pretty close.
And, then there are the regulatory hurdles...
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Apple has enough couch cushion money to pay off the regulators... in the USA. But not so sure about other countries, which have a hard on for US megacorps, and with good reason in many cases.
Even just for Apple, what a savings (Score:1)
Lots of people already buy Apple products with an Apple Card because of the cash back you get from it, or because of the payment plan you can invoke.
If Apple is handling payment processing suddenly the processing fee on most Apple products just vanishes instantly, a huge boost to profits all by itself. Apple getting processing fees from other stores people use the Apple Card is just gravy beyond that.
I wonder what Tennesee Williams would think. (Score:2)
Are the employees happy about this? I deal with Apple nearly every day for work and their sprawling bureaucracy coupled with the fact that every interaction with them has been carefully designed to put the bulk of the work back on YOU, the "customer", means they're already so fucking smug that banking seems like a natural outgrowth. I wonder if Warren Buffett will sell before before dies. [youtube.com]
apple card only 30% APR and apple pay pal 30% (Score:2)
apple card only 30% APR and apple pay pal 30% fee.
financial services (Score:2)
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Apple (and Google) isn't a tech company, they are an ecosystem company. Investment banking has no synergy with making lightbulbs, tying credit card services into an ecosystem of mobile phones, app stores and computers has a ton of synergy. Apple is a 800 Ton King Kong which can get into even extremely expensive to enter markets simply by tying it into its ecosystem ... in the modern connected world, a lot ties into the home electronic ecosystem. Credit cards, appliances, cars or even light bulbs (home autom
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I suspect they'd do just-as-well at financial services as goldman sachs would at building phones and laptops.
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Came here to post the same thing. G.E. is not the only cautionary tale of a company that nominally was about technology, manufacturing, and innovation turning into a financial services company - with bad outcomes for the company, customers, stockholders, and even the US taxpayer.
General Mot
Business as usual... (Score:3)
Translation: (Cr)Apple is continuing to try to build bigger walls around it's garden.
News at 11.
Apple? Really! (Score:2)