Back in January I suggested that Apple's Tap-to-pay solution would be something third party payment providers could integrate into because merchants aren't going to be interested in having their main payments happening in one place and their contactless stuff happening in a siloed Apple system.

This week, Mark Gurman has reporting on Apple getting far more into payment processing, and José Adorno sums it up on 9to5Mac:

Apple is developing its own payment processing technology and infrastructure for future financial products in a multi-year plan, according to a new report by Bloomberg. It could also help the company expands its payment features beyond the US.

This will be something I keep an eye on very closely in the coming years. Apple has been a great partner to payment companies over the past decade in creating a way for all of us to integrate into Apple Pay, which merchants love to offer to their customers. It is easy for customers, it improves conversion for merchants, and it drives loyalty to Apple products…it's the elusive win-win-win!

Apple getting into buy-now-pay-later stuff doesn't impact payment partners a ton (although I'm sure Klarna would not be too pleased), but Gurman mentions "payment processing, credit checks and other tasks" as things the company may also be pursuing down the line, and I'm very interested to see how much of this sees the light of day.