JPMorgan Chase is in discussion with Apple about taking over the computer giant's credit card programme from Goldman Sachs.
Goldman has been looking to offload the Apple card portfolio for over a year as part of its retreat from the consumer markets, an ill-fated venture which has saddled the investment bank with huge losses from its investments.
People familiar with the matter say talks are still at an early stage and could yet fall apart as JPMorgan haggles over the price and card features that it would like to ditch.
The bank is seeking to pay less than face value for the roughly $17 billion in loans on the Apple Card owing to higher-than-average delinquencies and defaults on the portfolio.
Questions around credit quality have made the portfolio less attractive to issuers at a time when there are concerns the US economy could be headed for a slowdown.
JPMorgan is also understood to be seeking to abandon Apple Card's calendar-based billing feature, in which all customers get statements at the start of the month rather than staggered throughout the period. While appealing to customers, the feature puts a huge burden on service personnel who have to field multiple calls at the same time every month.
Apple and JPMorgan declined to comment on the negotiations, which were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.