Come on Apple, make up your mind. Make a commitment. No, NOT to get married but rather if 'Big A' wants to build its own money transfer service. Its reported that discussions with some payments industry partner types may lead to 'Big A' introducing its own competitor to Venmo. Which means that iPhone owners could send digital money to other iPhone owners. They are thinking later this year (if they don't change their mind.....again). Oh yeah, other iPhone owners..............our number is 404............... Large denominations (or bitcoin) please.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
"Apple’s on-again, off-again flirtation with building its own money-transfer service appears to be back on.
The company has recently held discussions with payments industry partners about introducing its own Venmo competitor, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks.
The service would allow iPhone owners to send money digitally to other iPhone owners, these people said.
One source familiar with the plans told Recode they expect the company to announce the new service later this year. Another cautioned that an announcement and launch date may not yet be set.
Apple previously held talks with banks about such a service back in 2015 but did not end up launching anything.
If it happens this time, the new Apple product would compete with offerings from big U.S. banks as well as PayPal, its millennial-popular subsidiary Venmo, as well as Square Cash in the increasingly competitive world of digital money-transfers. Chase’s QuickPay service processed $28 billion in transfers last year, while Venmo registered $17.6 billion in volume and is still doubling year over year.
These services have typically been money losers for the new entrants in the space, but are seen as the gateway to the next generation of payment and personal finance services that could upend traditional consumer banking relationships. They are used for everything from splitting dinner bills to paying rent.
Source: Recode