Imagine an exclusive stock trading feature on iPhones. That’s an idea Apple had in the year 2020, but it eventually got cancelled.
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What Was Apple’s Plan?
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In the year 2020, when the stock market was booming, Apple and its banking partner Goldman Sachs were working on an investing feature on iPhones, that would let consumers buy and sell stocks.
But the project was shelved last year as the markets went south, said the people familiar with the project. The effort, which has not been previously reported, would have added to Apple’s suite of financial products powered by Goldman Sachs, as per CNBC.
Apple was working on the investing feature at a time of zero interest rates during Covid, when consumers were stuck at home and spending more of their time and their record savings in trading shares, including meme stocks like GameStop and AMC, from their smartphones.
Apple’s conversations with Goldman began during that hype cycle in 2020, the sources said. Their work progressed, and an Apple investing feature was meant to roll out in 2022. One hypothetical case pitched by executives involved the ability of iPhone users with extra cash to put money into Apple shares.
Also Read: Explained: How Apple Is Becoming More Like A Bank
Why Did Apple Cancel The Launch Of Stock Trading Feature?
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But as markets were roiled by higher rates and soaring inflation, the Apple team feared user backlash if people lost money in the stock market with the assistance of an Apple product, the sources said. That’s when the iPhone maker and Goldman switched directions and pushed the plan to launch savings accounts, which benefit from higher rates.
The status of the stock-trading project is unclear after Goldman CEO David Solomon bowed to internal and external pressure and decided to retrench nearly all of the bank’s consumer efforts. One source said the infrastructure for an investing feature is mostly built and ready to go should Apple eventually decide to move forward with it.
Also Read: Why Apple Is Forcing A 111-Year-Old Fruit Company To Change Its Logo
When CEO Tim Cook Was Almost Denied An Apple Credit Card
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Apple had first teamed up with Goldman Sachs to offer a credit card in 2019 and then added buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans and earlier this year, a high-yield savings account. The company said last month that the savings account offering had climbed past $10 billion in user deposits within just three months of launch.
But did you know Apple CEO Tim Cook was almost denied an Apple credit card? In a rather surprising incident that happened with Tim Cook, the 62-year-old CEO of Apple was denied a credit card, and that too was the one designed and conceptualised by his company, Apple itself. According to a report by the American technology news website The Information, Apple CEO Tim Cook had difficulty getting approval for an Apple Card during the application process, which happened a few months before the credit card’s launch in 2019, and the issue had engineers from both Apple and Goldman Sachs working to resolve it.
Curious to know the reason behind the rejection? Click here to know.
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