Apple in mid-April launched a new Savings account with a 4.15% yield, 10 times the national average for banks. “We are very pleased with the initial response,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts in early May.
Carleton English for Barron’s:
Apple doesn’t aspire to be a bank, but it’s pushing deeper into financial services, aiming to generate extra income while keeping its one billion-plus iPhone users hooked on the Apple ecosystem. The company is expanding into payments with its Apple Pay service. It has built a credit-card business with Goldman Sachs Group, its partner for the savings accounts, and it’s muscling into buy now, pay later, facing off against companies like Affirm, Block, and PayPal Holdings…
[I]f Apple succeeds in building a full-scale digital wallet, it could also be another killer app embedded in the company’s two billion installed devices, keeping consumers buying more hardware, software, and other services through the sheer convenience of having it all in one place.
None of this bodes well for PayPal, Block, and other rivals in financial technology, known as fintech. “A lot of companies in the fintech space are frenemies, but every player views Apple as a threat,” one analyst told Barron’s, requesting anonymity due to investments in the arena.
MacDailyNews Take: As English notes, shares of PayPal, Block, and Affirm are each off more than 75% from 2021 highs.
With Apple Pay Later here, Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, and the other BNPL outfits should be very worried. – MacDailyNews, March 29, 2023
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