Neil Cybart 4/20/23 Neil Cybart 4/20/23

Apple’s Fintech Play Outside the U.S., Apple Ecosystem Strength by Country, Google to Unveil Foldable Pixel (Daily Update)

Hello everyone. We will continue the discussion found in yesterday’s update regarding Apple’s fintech strategy. There was a consistent theme to incoming member questions regarding Apple’s fintech strategy. After answering that topic, Neil looks at one way to measure Apple’s ecosystem strength by country. The update concludes with news of Google getting ready to unveil a foldable smartphone. Let’s jump right in.

Apple’s Fintech Play Outside the U.S.

There was one consistent theme to incoming member questions and comments regarding yesterday’s discussion about Apple’s fintech strategy: When will Apple bring these features to other countries?

Here is the current availability for Apple’s fintech portfolio:

Apple Pay: 71 countries and regions
Apple Card: U.S. only
Apple Cash: U.S. only
Apple Savings: U.S. only
Apple Pay Later: U.S. only

For a global company, the following list is far from ideal. While Apple users in the U.S. are seeing the latest and greatest from Apple in terms of the company’s fintech play, outside the U.S., it has been slim pickings. And more worrying for non-U.S. Apple customers, it’s not clear when these fintech features will become available in other countries. Apple has not given any indication of rollout timelines or even the feasibility of global rollouts. For example, the Apple Savings account launched on Monday is only available to U.S. residents with a social security number of individual taxpayer identification number. There are no announced plans for additional country support, partially because Apple Savings requires an Apple Card which is only available in the U.S.

We can say with confidence that Apple would want to bring these fintech features to more countries. The ideals underpinning these features are universal (financial well-being and data privacy), even though they may not necessarily match all government allowances and goals.

As for why these features have limited distribution, my suspicion is

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Neil Cybart 4/19/23 Neil Cybart 4/19/23

Apple Launches High-Yield Savings Account, Apple’s Great Timing, Apple’s Expanding Fintech Play (Daily Update)

Happy Tuesday. We begin today’s update with an examination of Apple’s new savings account (in partnership with Goldman Sachs). The discussion goes over three things about the account that jumped out at Neil. We then go over how Apple has great timing with this savings account and how the new product fits within Apple’s broader fintech play.

Apple Launches High-Yield Savings Account

In a press release issued yesterday, here’s Apple:

“Starting today, Apple Card users can choose to grow their Daily Cash rewards with a Savings account from Goldman Sachs, which offers a high-yield APY of 4.15 percent — a rate that’s more than 10 times the national average. With no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements, users can easily set up and manage their Savings account directly from Apple Card in Wallet.

‘Savings helps our users get even more value out of their favorite Apple Card benefit — Daily Cash — while providing them with an easy way to save money every day,’ said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. ‘Our goal is to build tools that help users lead healthier financial lives, and building Savings into Apple Card in Wallet enables them to spend, send, and save Daily Cash directly and seamlessly — all from one place.’

Once a Savings account is set up, all future Daily Cash earned by the user will be automatically deposited into the account. The Daily Cash destination can also be changed at any time, and there’s no limit on how much Daily Cash users can earn. To build on their savings even further, users can deposit additional funds into their Savings account through a linked bank account, or from their Apple Cash balance.”

Like Apple Card, this savings account is run through Goldman Sachs. This means Apple doesn’t need to have a banking charter and get bogged down by regulatory items. More on this shortly.

It’s not fair to say this is just a Goldman Sachs savings account wrapped in an Apple shell or covering.