That’s how much the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Goldman Sachs and Apple to pay for failures of the Apple Card, a partnership between the iPhone maker and the Wall Street titan. 

Launched in 2019, the Apple Card was advertised as a credit card that allows consumers to pay monthly installments on Apple products without interest, among other benefits. As of January 2024, Apple Card has more than 12 million users. 

In CFPB director Rohit Chopra’s words (emphasis ours): 

Goldman Sachs didn’t really have experience in consumer banking and lending, but it found an opportunity with Apple.

Apple and Goldman Sachs moved to launch Apple Card together. The plan was that Goldman Sachs would be responsible for figuring out the mechanics of financing and account servicing, while Apple would manage marketing and other key activities. The execution was a mess.

The companies’ poor execution unfairly held customers responsible for disputed charges. The CFPB also called out marketing that misled users and charged them interest.

To put the $89 million fine in context, Apple Card has racked up as much as $3 billion in loan balances during its first year, Goldman Sachs said during an earnings call in October 2020.

But the bank still hasn’t made money from consumer banking: Goldman’s platform-solutions unit — which houses its consumer business, including the credit-card partnerships — lost $1.2 billion during the first six months of 2023. Goldman has already said it would stop issuing its other consumer-facing credit card in partnership with GM (Barclays has taken over as the card issuer for GM). The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Apple has asked to exit the contract with Goldman.