This isn't as big of a deal as you think, this sort of arrangement is the same as when an alumni association, sports team, or charity offers a credit card.

Yes, and ultimately Goldman Sachs is a bank and will be held accountable for anything that happens. This is a GS product that Apple gets a significant cut of.

>Yes, and ultimately Goldman Sachs is a bank and will be held accountable for anything that happens.

The jokes almost write themselves. . .

Retail banking, especially credit, is much more regulated than the investment banking shenanigans that led to the 2008 crisis.

Retail banks were on the front lines making the liar loans that got everything started. Investment banks wouldn't have had any bogus mortgages to bet on without retail banks originating them.

The decision to use GS is highly dilutive to Apple's brand.

I get that you're trying to tell a morality tale in order to determine who the bad guy is, but there wasn't "a bad guy" causing the last recession. "Retail banks were on the front lines making the liar lones".... and millions of creditless idiots were buying houses they couldn't afford.

You don't need the ball when the chain wraps around the whole world.

My point is that "much more regulated" retail banks don't behave any better than the other players in the financial system. That's not a morality tale it's a fact. If the financial crisis didn't convince you certainly Wells Fargo should have.

While true, I feel like many of the perks of Apple's offering are well over and above the regulatory mandates that credit card issuers are held to.

Isn't it much worse to have big companies in a heavily-regulated industry where those big companies largely control the regulations? Surely they will influence the regulations to increase barriers of entry into their industry.

Also there are hundreds of banks around the world, you can often choose among dozens around you.

There are 3 or 4 tech companies big enough to pull this off, in the whole world.