I don't think this is very different from Bank of America or Chase running a payment processing system. Both issue cards, and run two of the largest credit car

I don't think this is very different from Bank of America or Chase running a payment processing system. Both issue cards, and run two of the largest credit card processing systems. Bank of America Merchant Services and Chase Paymentech. Most smaller providers still depend on one of those larger banks networks to process transactions. You generally always need an acquiring bank to issue cards or process transactions. I believe this is the role of Goldman Sachs in this Apple news. (Source: I worked at Square for 6 years, and my teams were directly responsible for the network integrations to connect to those merchant acquirers so we could process credit cards.)