On Apple Card launch day, Mastercard touts security, Goldman says it’s only the beginning - 9to5Mac

After gradually rolling out to testers over the last two weeks, Apple Card today officially launched to everyone. In conjunction with that launch, both Mastercard and Goldman Sachs are touting their newfound partnership with Apple.

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First off, Mastercard’s president of North American operations Craig Vosburg took to CNBC today to detail the security behind Apple Card. Vosburg explained that while not having a card number on the physical helps with security, even bigger security measures are being taken behind the scenes.

Vosburg said that Mastercard is scrambling the 16-digit card number in a way that only it and Goldman Sachs can recognize. If the card number appears somewhere it shouldn’t, they can instantly kill it:

We’re taking the digital representation of that 16-digit number and scrambling [it] into a code that only we and Goldman Sachs can recognize. We know where it’s meant to be used. We know it’s meant to be used with that Apple device, and if it shows up somewhere else, we know it’s been compromised and we can kill it.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon sent a memo to employees this morning celebrating the launch of Apple Card. Solomon explained that while Goldman’s new partnership with Apple is important, “It’s also a beginning.”

Apple Card is Goldman’s first major foray into the consumer banking business through its Marcus division, and Solomon says that he expects the company to be a leader within the next decade.

Apple Card is big, but it’s also a beginning. With no real legacy technology or a longstanding consumer business to defend, we are positioned to innovate, unlike many others in the industry. In the decades to come, I expect us to be a leader in our consumer business, just like we are in our institutional and corporate businesses, with customer-centricity at the core of everything we do.

You can sign up for Apple Card without an invite by going into the Wallet app and tapping the “+” in the upper-right corner. Here’s more about Apple Card: