Goldman Taps Marqeta to Launch Marcus Checking Accounts
Marcus, the consumer-facing arm of Goldman Sachs, will launch checking accounts and debit cards by late 2021.
Need to Know
- Marqeta will build checking accounts and issue debit cards for Marcus, Goldman Sachs’s consumer banking app.
- Goldman is an investor in Marqueta, the fintech that launched in 2010 and which is currently valued at $4.3 billion.
- The Marcus checking accounts are slated to launch later this year.
- Marcus currently has over four million users.
Analysis
Goldman Sachs is continuing to expand its consumer-banking app, Marcus, announcing that it has partnered with Marqeta to launch a checking account and debit card later this year.
Marcus, which launched in 2016, currently offers savings accounts and personal loans to consumers; as of September 2020, Goldman has amassed more than $96 billion in consumer deposits to Marcus. The launch of checking accounts and debit cards will follow a trend of aggressive expansion into consumer banking for Goldman, traditionally an investment bank, which has also included the launch of a credit card with Apple in 2019.
Marqeta is a card-issuing platform and payments processor that launched in 2016, which currently powers companies including Instacart and Square’s Cash App, while Goldman is already an investor in the fintech. Because of this, Marqueta founder and CEO Jason Gardner says the checking account partnership is “not a transaction” and more of an extension of the two companies’ existing relationship.
“It’s years of getting to know the team, sharing roadmaps of where we’re headed and what we’re going to do, which ultimately comes to Goldman Sachs choosing Marqeta to help them build these products,” Gardner said.
In July of 2020, Marqeta—which, at the time, had issued more than 140 million cards—was reportedly preparing for an IPO, though one has not yet been made.
Goldman Sachs has been steadily building out Marcus’ capacities, and the launch of checking capabilities has long been rumored. The company launched an installment payment program, MarcusPay, in April of last year, followed by the introduction of a personal finance tool, Marcus Insights, in September. In October, Goldman reported that Marcus had grown by $4 billion over the previous quarter.
