Visa's Bid to Replace Mastercard in Apple Partnership
Visa has offered Apple approximately $100 million to take over the credit card partnership from Mastercard, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
This move is part of Visa's efforts to secure rights to the Apple Card by offering an advance typically reserved for leading card programs. The American payment giant is also facing competition from American Express, which aims to serve both as the card issuer and payment network.
Goldman Sachs and Apple, which started collaborating in 2019 with Mastercard for payment processing, ended that partnership in November 2023. Now several financial firms are looking to replace Goldman as the credit card issuer for Apple. According to Reuters, Apple has been in discussions with Barclays, Synchrony Financial, and JPMorgan Chase since last year.
Goldman Sachs began its foray into consumer banking nearly a decade ago, attempting to expand its revenue beyond trading and investment banking. However, by the end of 2022, the company decided to scale back its retail ambitions, setting aside billions of dollars to cover potential losses.