At the ned of last month, Bloomberg News reported that Apple is launching an initiative code-named “Breakout” to bring more financial services capabilities—like payment processing, risk and fraud analysis, credit checks, and customer service—in-house.
That helps explain why Apple acquired Credit Kudos, a UK-based open banking company that helps lending streamline and improve their loan underwriting efforts.
But why the broader push to bring financial capabilities like payment processing and customer service functions in-house? Tom Noyes, CEO and founder of Acc3pt and longtime payments industry insider, speculates that with Breakout, Apple wants to:
• Own the payments supply chain and minimize any external vendors and partners touching consumer data.
• Launch a buy now, pay later (BNPL) feature to jumpstart the Apple Card in various markets.
• Reduce network costs and improve integration into local schemes (e.g., see ApplePay India’s UPI integration).
• Improve the consumer experience by deploying Apple Cash in every market, connecting to local schemes, and enabling P2P payments on Apple phones.
• Expand iPhone sales (with payments and financing) to demographics and geographies with poor consumer credit facilities.
MacDailyNews Take: Sleep tight, Square, PayPal, etc.
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