The companies have reached a deal after more than a year of negotiations and will announce it soon, so long as there are no “last-minute hiccups,” The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday (Jan. 7), citing unnamed sources.
JPMorgan Chase will take over the credit card program from Goldman Sachs, which will offload the program’s $20 billion of outstanding card balances at a discount of more than $1 billion, according to the report.
The report attributed the discount to the program’s high exposure to subprime borrowers and its delinquency rate that is higher than the industry average.
The balances of most co-branded card programs sell at a premium of as much as 8% or, for the strongest programs, a premium in the double digits, the report said.
JPMorgan Chase will issue Apple credit cards for new and existing customers and plans to launch a new Apple savings account that will exist alongside those already established at Goldman Sachs, per the report.
JPMorgan Chase declined to comment on the report.
Neither Apple nor Goldman Sachs immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
It was reported in July that JPMorgan Chase and Apple were close to reaching a deal on the credit card program after negotiating it since early 2024.
Apple launched the credit card program in March 2019 in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard, with Apple CEO Tim Cook saying that “there are things about the credit card experience that could be so much better.”
It was reported in November 2023 that Apple decided to end its credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs and proposed an exit from their contract.
Goldman Sachs had informed Apple that it intended to offload the partnership after suffering significant losses in its attempt to build a full-service consumer operation, according to that report.
In October 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it would fine Apple and Goldman Sachs more than $89 million for alleged customer service violations that impacted hundreds of thousands of Apple Card users.
