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Bulletins

Apple is jumping deeper into fintech by lending directly

Apple Financing will handle the company's forthcoming "buy now, pay later" service.

Apple logo

Apple is handling its own lending for its Pay Later service.

Image: Apple

Apple will be offering lending services for its new "buy now, pay later" service itself instead of relying on banking partners, according to Bloomberg, in a major move into financial services for the tech giant.

Apple Financing LLC, a wholly owned Apple subsidiary that has state lending licenses, will do credit checks and make loan decisions.

Previously Apple has relied on partners for financial products. Its Apple Card credit card uses Goldman Sachs for lending and credit. Goldman is issuing the Mastercard credential that will be used for Apple's Pay Later service.

Apple is also working on its own payment-processing service, among other services, Bloomberg reports, in an effort to reduce its dependence on outside vendors.

The move brings Apple more directly into competition with a variety of fintech and financial companies.

Apple has been looking for more ways to increase its business for services that do not rely on hardware sales.

The phone maker has also pushed heavily into expanding the usefulness of Apple Wallet, which stores card credentials for Apple Pay but has been broadening to include other digital items like drivers' licenses, airline boarding passes, baseball tickets and local transit tickets.

Tomio Geron

Tomio Geron ( @tomiogeron) is a San Francisco-based reporter covering fintech. He was previously a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, covering venture capital and startups. He was also as a staff writer at Forbes covering social media and venture capital, and edited the Midas List of top tech investors. He can be reached at tgeron@protocol.com or tgeron@protonmail.com.

lendingbuy now pay laterappleapple financing llc
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