Business
$89M
Yiwen Lu

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.

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$98B ⛽

The IATA released its latest financial outlook for the airline industry over the weekend, forecasting a $98 billion jump in the sector’s collective fuel bill. The world’s largest trade group representing airlines expects the oil spike to halve profits by 49% from last year to $23 billion.

The group also expects profit margins to halve year over year, falling from 2025’s 4.2% to 2%. Still, revenue is expected to climb to $1.17 trillion from $1.07 trillion.

A surge in the cost of jet fuel has rocked US and global airlines this year, leading Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and others to raise fares and ancillary charges like bag fees. Low-cost carriers, which operate on smaller margins, have been squeezed the hardest, resulting in Spirit’s shutdown.

“It’s a tough year for all airlines, especially those whose balance sheets had not yet recovered from COVID. And, of course, for those operating in the Gulf,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, who added that demand is holding up and about half of passengers expect to spend more on travel this year. “That bodes well for a strong northern summer peak season. The big unknown is how long travelers and shippers can tolerate the higher costs of connectivity.”

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GM has reportedly rehired more than 100 former Cruise employees, 18 months after shuttering the robotaxi unit

GM has rehired more than 100 employees it let go early last year when it shuttered Cruise, its former robotaxi business, according to reporting by The Information.

The hiring spree, which also includes employees from Nvidia and Uber, is geared toward ramping up GM’s plans for personal-use self-driving vehicles and not robotaxis. The former had been the focus of Cruise, prior to GM shuttering it in 2024.

Reporting last fall revealed that GM was attempting to rehire some former Cruise employees, but the scope of that effort wasn’t clear. More than 1,000 employees were laid off when the automaker scrapped Cruise, which it invested $10 billion into.

Google’s Waymo, Cruise’s former chief rival, is now worth $126 billion after a $16 billion funding round earlier this year. The company says it’s serving 500,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the US.

Reporting last fall revealed that GM was attempting to rehire some former Cruise employees, but the scope of that effort wasn’t clear. More than 1,000 employees were laid off when the automaker scrapped Cruise, which it invested $10 billion into.

Google’s Waymo, Cruise’s former chief rival, is now worth $126 billion after a $16 billion funding round earlier this year. The company says it’s serving 500,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the US.

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