Apple -- Apple Pay Later -- BNPL -- Update -- February 8, 2023

Link here.

Apple this week made a beta version of its upcoming "Apple Pay Later" feature available to the company's more than 80,000 retail employees in the U.S. for testing.

Announced at WWDC 2022 last June, Apple Pay Later is a "buy now, pay later" financing option that will let qualifying customers in the U.S. split a purchase made with Apple Pay into four equal payments over six weeks, with no interest or fees to pay. The feature will be built into Apple's Wallet app on the iPhone and iPad.

Also, from January 24, 2023.

Digital wallet: link here. 

Major banks in the US are combining forces to take on Apple Pay. Zelle. This is a huge story. Coming on the heels of incredibly poor earnings being reported by some major banks. 

Apple is not a bank. This tells me how threatening the major banks see Apple. See this recent post, one of two big stories reported that week. 

Last year we started receiving information from our regional bank regarding their new service, Zelle. It appeared the Zelle was our only way to transfer money from our bank account to outside accounts where automatic withdrawal exists (other than paper checks). I don't think that's true but it felt that why. Whatever. The big problem: I don't trust my regional bank (transactions fees, etc) and I certainly don't trust an outside app with which I have no experience.

For me, Apple and "trust" are linked in the dictionary. And at the hip.

See yesterday's note on CBDC, also -- central bank digital currency.