JPMorgan Chase in talks with Apple to take card from Goldman Sachs

an apple he is in talks JPMorgan Chase for the bank to take over the tech giant’s credit card program Goldman Sachssaid a person familiar with the negotiations.

Talks are still early and key aspects of the deal — such as price and whether JPMorgan will continue with certain features of the Apple Card — have yet to be decided, said the person, who asked not to be identified to discuss the nature of a potential deal. Talks could break out on these or other issues in the coming months, the person said.

But the move shows the extent to which Apple’s options were limited when Goldman Sachs decided to navigate its ill-fated retail banking strategy. Only a handful of US card issuers have the scale and desire to take on the Apple Card program, which has saddled Goldman with losses and legal scrutiny.

JPMorgan is the nation’s largest credit card issuer by purchase volume, according to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter.

The bank wants to pay less than the amount it owes on its roughly $17 billion loan to Apple Card because of heavy losses on the cards, a person familiar with the matter said. Sources close to Goldman argued that the higher-than-average fraud and default in the Apple Card portfolio was because the users were new accounts; that loss should have diminished over time.

But questions about credit quality have made the portfolio unattractive to issuers at a time when there are concerns that the US economy could be headed for a recession.

JPMorgan also wants to eliminate a key Apple Card feature known as calendar-based billing, which means all customers receive statements at the beginning of the month rather than staggered throughout, a person familiar with the matter said. The feature, while appealing to customers, means that service staff are inundated with calls at the same time every month.

Apple and JPMorgan declined to comment on the talks, which were previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.