How Apple’s Financial Service Offerings Change the Fin-Tech Game

Apple’s latest launch of their new savings account offering doesn’t just change their portfolio – it changes the industry. Apple has a history of building great customer experiences and this focus hasn’t shifted despite their expansion into the financial services industry, in fact, their newest high-yield savings account is aimed at winning over customers.

What’s so different about their offering? If you ask Bill Budde, not much, “It is the most basic financial services offering that they’ve come to, it’s kind of the building block for building a relationship from a financial services perspective with a customer.” But it’s not the difference that matters – it’s the brand. Apple’s offering has everything that a customer would expect from a bank, including high interest, FDIC insurance, and ease of money mobility within the system. Paired with their Apple pay later product and Apple credit card, Apple is building an impressively integrated Apple wallet portfolio.

Because this isn’t just your typical small fin-tech start-up – it’s Apple – it comes with the resources to back up the venture. Budde remarked, “Apple has a long history of really focusing on customer experience…that’s going to play out into their financial services offerings as well.”

Alongside their large customer base, many of whom already subscribed to Apple’s subscriptions like Apple Music and additional cloud storage, Apple’s making waves in the financial services industry. “A company like Apple has a little different calculus there, because if a, the Apple savings account means that the Apple Music subscriptions now have a higher retention rate, well, that’s also going to contribute to success even if the savings account stand-alone doesn’t make as much money as a traditional financial service offering would,” said Budde.

Article written by Marissa Martin.