Visa has offered Apple approximately US$100 million to take over the technology giant’s credit card partnership from Mastercard, The Wall Street Journal reported on April 1, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Visa has made a significant push to secure the Apple Card, offering an upfront payment typically reserved for the largest card programmes.

American Express is also attempting to displace Mastercard to win the Apple Card, with plans to become both the card’s issuer and network.

Goldman Sachs and Apple, which launched their credit card partnership in 2019 with Mastercard as the payment processor, have ended their alliance, according to a report from November 2023.

Several financial firms are now competing to replace Goldman as Apple’s credit card partner.

Reuters reported in January that Apple was in discussions with Barclays and Synchrony Financial to take over the partnership.

JPMorgan Chase has also been in talks with Apple about the business since last year, Reuters had previously reported.

Goldman Sachs entered the consumer banking sector nearly a decade ago in an effort to diversify its revenue beyond its core areas of trading and investment banking.

However, by late 2022, the Wall Street firm decided to scale back its retail ambitions after allocating billions of dollars to cover potential losses in the business.

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