Yesterday, there was a lot of talk about the Department of Justice’s anti-trust lawsuit against Apple.
Simon Taylor called it the “biggest thing in fintech since Visa/Plaid.” American Banker gave us a history of the battles between banks and Apple over the years. And TechCrunch had no less than six articles covering this development.
While the lawsuit itself is broad it does include some specific complaints about Apple’s massive financial business. Like with all things Apple, its financial offerings operate in a walled garden and that is the problem.
Apple Pay only works with the Apple digital wallet and third-party apps can’t even access the NFC chip. The EU opened an anti-trust investigation into Apple back in 2020 and has agreed to make some concessions.
In Europe, developers will soon have access to the NFC chip to build their own tap-to-pay services that can bypass Apple Wallet and Apple Pay. That opened the door for US regulators to act.
If Apple has a more open system in Europe, then U.S. consumers should enjoy the same benefits. That is at the heart of the DoJ complaint.
Apple shows no signs of slowing down in its push to add financial services features into the iPhone and its associated ecosystem. As digital financial services become more entrenched in our lives, it will be good for consumers to have access to products from a broad cross-section of vendors.
If the DoJ is successful, that will almost certainly come to pass.
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> DOJ says Apple’s ‘complete control’ over tap-to-pay transactions stops innovation, cements its monopoly
By Ingrid Lunden
In its antitrust complaint against Apple and its iPhone business, the U.S. Justice Department takes aim against Apple’s financial business.
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If AI is properly deployed, it improves credit unions’ fraud decisioning capabilities, Provenir’s EVP for North America Kathy Stares believes.
> Wisconsin becomes third state to pass an Earned Wage Access law
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Earned Wage Access has specific legislation in Nevada, Missouri and now Wisconsin after the governor signed a new law this week.
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