Goodbye, bank. Welcome, Apple Bank 🏦🤯; Western Union moves into digital banking 💳; PayPal’s long-awaited crypto feature🔥

Good Morning FinTech, 12 June

Good morning Everyone,

And happy Sunday! I hope you had a great week as Amsterdam🇳🇱 and Money20/20 were lit!🔥 Apparently, FinTech never sleeps and this week was just beyond crazy. Today’s issue, therefore, focuses on Apple and how it can become the biggest bank in the world (without actually being a bank!), old-school Western Union moving into digital banking (Wise & Remitly should watch this!), and the long-awaited crypto feature from PayPal (and why it’s good despite being slow). Plus, 4 things worth watching and ~20 funding news. So, without further ado, let’s jump straight into the awesomely good stuff:

Goodbye, bank. Welcome, Apple Bank 🏦🤯

The (breaking) news🔥 Tech titan Apple is making its biggest move into finance thus far by offering loans directly to consumers for its new Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) product (= Apple Pay Later). With this move, Apple is taking on a role played in its other lending services by banking partners such as Goldman Sachs, FT reported.

According to FT, short-term loans made through the iPhone maker’s new Apple Pay Later service will be made through a wholly owned subsidiary, Apple Financing LLC.

And this is where all the juice is.

The pivot 👉 The fact that the wholly owned subsidiary will oversee credit checks and make decisions on loans for the service and has the necessary state lending licenses to offer the feature marks the first time Apple is handling key financial tasks like loans, risk management, and credit assessments.

It’s a significant shift for a company that got its start selling PCs. It must be noted that until now, Apple’s financial services have been backed by third-party credit processors and banks. The Apple Card credit card, for instance, relies on Goldman Sachs for lending and credit assessment while riding on Mastercard’s rails.

Goldman Sachs will now retain a smaller role in the new program. The financial firm is the issuer of the Mastercard payment credential that’s used to complete Apple Pay Later purchases. Apple Financing doesn’t have its own bank charter. Yet.

The Apple Bank? 🤯 With the latest BNPL feature and taking on lending, Apple can soon become the biggest bank in the world! 🤯 Without actually being a bank…