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"In January, Goldman disclosed that it had lost about $3 billion on the consumer-lending push since 2020." Looks like Tim Cook will be joining Warren Buffett i

• kirkbackus 3y ago
  In the attached article > After hovering around record lows for much of the pandemic, consumer delinquencies are rising across the industry. > It lost slightly more than $1 billion in 2021 and $783 million in 2020, after accounting for operating expenses and money set aside to cover possible losses on loans That seems like an enormous amount of money to support buy now and pay later
  • tempest_ 3y ago
    The retailers love it though. I even Amazon is getting in on it.
    • frankfrankfrank 3y ago
      [dead]
  • dylan604 3y ago
    Apple has enough cash reserves to be able to be a bank themselves, but I guess are much too smart to use their own money. Is the buy now, pay later all of what this stems from? I have never looked into it, but I assumed they were also backing the Apple credit card which I consider totally different from each other.
    • ayende 3y ago
      It's more than that. Consider Apple's strongest advantage, it's brand. If Goldman is the one handling the lending, it is also the one sending you to collections. The PR damage to Apple's brand can be significant
      • dylan604 3y ago
        But Apple could take it to an 11 too. If they finance your equipment and you fall behind on your payments, guess whose equipment just went into lock-out mode... Apple could then allow the device to be returned to an Apple Store, and credit will be applied to the account. A voluntary return policy, only throw in a carrot of if you provide a memory stick, they'll make you a copy of the data for a small nominal fee.
        • NicoJuicy 3y ago
          That will most definitely destroy the brand
          • dylan604 3y ago
            Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Honda, et al. repo cars daily, and their brands are not hurting. People know when they can't make payments that their collateral is likely to be collected. I'm not saying I'm for them doing this or anything, but just taking the dystopian concept to a logical completion. We've already seen where self driving cars have been discussed repossessing themselves, so this is just the natural extension of the same concept. This forum tends to think that places like FB, Googs, etc should have a very negative brand due to the data collections, but the masses don't give a damn.
            • jncfhnb 3y ago
              Those are typically dealers
              • dylan604 3y ago
  • tedunangst 3y ago
    Wait to see what the realized losses are. Banks are kinda infamous for huge preemptive write downs, then discovering "profits" when the loans pan out.
    • formercoder 3y ago
      I think it is that, I assume "money set aside to cover possible losses on loans" means income statement provision for future losses.
  • formercoder 3y ago
    What's really shocking is that this number is post provision for future losses, which is a non cash accounting charge that the media often uses to make banks look worse. These are real losses.