Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), the world’s most valuable public company, is diving deeper into the Fintech space according to a report. Apple is expected to offer a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service similar to other Fintechs like Affirm. BNPLs have emerged as a hot sector of Fintech as it allows a purchaser to make payments over time on an item. For retailers, the feature can encourage more sales as the service is available at the point of sale, both online and in-person, while generating consumer data.
According to a report in Bloomberg, the service will be known as Apple Pay Later – offered in partnership with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) – the company that has been working on the highly successful Apple Card. The Apple Card touts its user-friendly approach with no hidden fees and cashback on all purchases including up to 3% on certain retailers including the Apple Store.
A report from this past May estimated that there were over 6.4 million Apple Cardholders.
Apple Pay Later would be tied to the existing Apple Pay App and not require an Apple Card while boosting overall usage of the digital wallet.
The report explains the service:
“When a user makes a purchase via Apple Pay on their Apple device, they will have the option to pay for it either across four interest-free payments made every two weeks, or across several months with interest, one of the people said. The plan with four payments is called “Apple Pay in 4” internally, while the longer-term payment plans are dubbed “Apple Pay Monthly Installments.”
Apple already offers instalment payments for the purchase of its own products like the iPhone.
If Apple charges rates below existing BNPL services it could emerge as a dominant credit provider in the embedded finance sector.
Additionally, the same report claimed that Apple is “testing a feature that will let users create temporary, digital Apple Pay Later credit cards for individual purchases.”
Apple has quietly emerged as a sizeable Fintech with its digital wallet, peer to peer payments, and Apple Card. A BNPL service simply makes sense as the company expands its offerings for its hundreds of millions of users. More recently, Apple allowed sharing of the Apple Card with other family members – similar to its other services like Apple Music, Movies, Arcade, etc.