Goldman Extends $10B In Apple Card Credit In First Month

Goldman Sachs said it doled out about $10 billion in credit lines in just over month for the Apple-branded credit card, Bloomberg reported on Friday (Nov. 1). 

According to regulatory filings made public this week, Apple Card‌ customers had $736 million in loan balances at the end of September, though it’s not clear how that compares with other credit cards, as Bloomberg said banks do not break out performance by individual cards.

The Apple Card is Goldman Sachs latest inroad into the retail consumer business after establishing its online Marcus brand in 2016, which makes unsecured personal loans. CFO Stephen Scherr told Bloomberg during an October earnings call that the firm was intentionally slowing down Marcus because of the exposure it was taking on with Apple Card. Goldman Sachs’ consumer push was initiated by former CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who was looking for ways to diversify the firm’s revenue base. 

The Apple Card offers users the option to gain 3 percent cash back when paying for Apple products and services, as well as at Uber, Uber Eats, T-Mobile, Walgreens and Duane Reade. The cash-back benefit will be added to more merchants in the future. There are no fees with the card, and it integrates with Apple Pay and the iOS Wallet app.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called the Apple Card “the most successful credit-card launch ever,” last month in an investor call. 

“In three short years, we have raised $55 billion in deposits on the Marcus platform, generated $5 billion in loans, and built a new credit-card platform and launched Apple Card,” Solomon said on the call, adding that, “we’ve been pleased to see a high level of consumer demand for the product. From an operational and risk perspective, we’ve handled the inflows smoothly, and without comprising our credit underwriting standards.”