Goldman cuts personal lending after launching Apple card
Goldman Sachs sharply curtailed its originations of personal loans last year amid the roll-out of its credit card partnership with Apple, according to the American Banker.
The New York banking giant reported on 15 January that it sharply curtailed its originations of personal loans last year amid the roll-out of its credit card partnership with Apple.
Its partnership with Apple has taken some of the momentum away from Marcus.
Goldman Sachs’ personal loans outstanding at the end of 2019 were in the $5 billion range, unchanged from a year earlier. The company started offering personal loans under its Marcus brand in the fall of 2016 and hit $4 billion in originations in less than two years. The company retains all of its personal loans on its own books.
Many credit union watchers were concerned when Marcus launched in 2016 because of its potential to cut into the industry’s unsecured loan portfolio. Recent data shows those fears may have been overblown.
According to the latest Credit Union Trends Report from CUNA Mutual Group, unsecured lending at credit unions – excluding credit cards – was up by 7.5% year-over-year in November, the most recent data available, for a total of $47 billion. While growth rates have fluctuated, year-over-year growth for that product has not dipped below 5.9% during any month for the last two years and has generally stayed above 7%.
Goldman generally eschewed consumer banking during its first 145 years but has recently built retail loan and deposit franchises from scratch. The mobile app for Marcus, which has both borrowing and saving features, was rolled-out last week.
Read more: Goldman Sachs quietly releases Marcus app three years after launch
Goldman’s partnership with Apple for the Apple Card has taken some of the momentum away from Marcus, and the company told the American Banker that it already has $2 billion in loans on the product, which only launched in August 2019.
“The slowing pace of growth in our Marcus unsecured loan business reflected the anticipated growth in our credit card lending from the launch of Apple Card,” chief financial officer Stephen Scherr said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.
Credit unions haven’t had the same concerns about the Apple Card as they did with Marcus. CUNA Mutual data shows just 5.9% year-over-year credit card growth for CUs as of November, a total of $65.1 billion in loans. One-year prior credit card growth was at 7.8% year over year, and in November 2017 that figure stood at 9.1%.
