Last week Apple confirmed what had long been rumored: Chase is becoming the new issuer of Apple Card. Per The Wall Street Journal, the move is already making an impact on JPMorgan Chase’s bottom line—and not in a good way.
Chase profits fell in Q4 2025, with Apple Card partly responsible
Alexander Saeedy writes at The Wall Street Journal:
JPMorgan Chase reported that the bank’s profit fell 7% in the fourth quarter of 2025, dragged down by a charge from its deal to take over the Apple credit card program and a surprising slip in investment banking fees. […] Last week, JPMorgan said it would be acquiring the Apple credit-card program from Goldman Sachs, which led JPMorgan to take an extra $2.2 billion charge for potential future loan losses on the roughly $20 billion in balances. That dragged down the quarter’s results by 60 cents per share, the bank said.
Despite Apple Card being fairly popular among consumers, the product has clearly not been a success for original (and still-current) issuer Goldman Sachs.
You can find a lot more details about the troubled Apple-Goldman Sachs history here.
In short, Apple Card has been a bit of a headache for the firm. And it’s come with significant financial losses.
Even though Chase isn’t officially taking over Apple Card for another two years, the bank is planning ahead for potential losses in the future. Thus, the extra $2.2 billion charge that contributed to a loss in the quarter.
One has to wonder why Chase agreed to take on Apple Card in the first place, considering the challenges Goldman Sachs faced.
Some sort of changes to Apple Card are anticipated. Though at this point, Apple has largely emphasized continuity for existing Apple Card users, with more details to follow later.
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