Apple’s Money Transfer Ambitions Reinitiated According To Reports

Once again, Apple could be thinking about launching its own money transfer system after several attempts in the past ended up going nowhere. This has been something of an itch for the iPhone maker, which it just can’t seem to scratch. Now, reports are coming in that the Cupertino company is in talks with potential partners, with sources saying that it could launch the service as early as this year.

According to sources, Apple is apparently thinking of launching a service that will serve as a competitor to Venmo, Recode reports. It will have all the money transfer features along with the money storage aspect that Apple Pay didn’t have. This will basically allow iPhone owners to do peer to peer digital money transactions.

The company had actually discussed the idea with several banks back in 2015, but the talks fell through. If this new round of discussions actually ends up with a real service, it would put Apple in direct competition with industry behemoths like PayPal, Square Cash, and QuickPay.

Considering just how much money goes through the digital hands of these services, it’s really no wonder that Apple wants in on the action. For example, 2016 saw Venmo move $17.6 billion in total cash while QuickPay processed about $28 billion in the same period.

Aside from simple money transfers, Apple could be offering pre-paid debit cards to customers as well, The Motley Fool reports. If true, this would certainly make gaining access to the funds a lot easier than having to wait for financial institutions to clear the transactions via cumbersome applications and whatnot.

On that note, the publication points out that this new venture may not yield the kind of results that Apple is looking for. Its existing means of money transfer in Apple Pay has been decidedly underwhelming in terms of usage. There’s also the fact that P2P is difficult to sustain despite the growing number of competition.