Apple Pay uses (used?) the American Express payments network. It's accepted at card terminals where they 1) have the hardware to talk to an iPhone and 2) accept

Apple Pay uses (used?) the American Express payments network. It's accepted at card terminals where they 1) have the hardware to talk to an iPhone and 2) accept Amex. The issue with Apple disintermediating the credit card networks is that they're currently in the loop. This means that they'll be far more capable of obstructing a disintermediation play, if for no other reason than that it'll be hard to do it as a surprise move. Otherwise, I totally agree that they're not a bank nor an investment bank. Really, they're highly unlikely to go in that direction at all, given that they don't have any incentive to lend or credit anyone. They're far more likely to directly interact with banks, heading in a direction somewhat like Paypal, if they can pull that off. At that point, they avoid most (all?) of the banking regulations, though it starts to look like a disintermediation play very quickly from there.