Goldman Sachs Builds Out Retail Banking with MarcusPay

Need to Know

• Goldman Sachs is expanding its retail banking options by launching an installment loan product with inaugural partner JetBlue Airways.
• The bank launched a website for MarcusPay late last week, allowing customers to break up big purchases into monthly payments.
• According to the MarcusPay site, customers can apply for loans ranging from $750 to $10,000, then repay them over 12 or 18 months at a fixed rate of 10.99% to 25.99%. There are no fees apart from interest.
• The JetBlue partnership will likely allow customers to use MarcusPay as an option to pay down vacation packages beginning in Fall 2020, according to sources. This partnership was discussed and formed well before the COVID-19 pandemic slowed all travel worldwide.
• This initiative, along with Goldman Sachs’ retail banking platform Marcus, was created to diversify the bank away from the volatile daily trading and investing operations.

Analysis

Goldman Sachs is continuing its efforts to break into retail banking with a brand new iteration of its Marcus platform. MarcusPay is the massive US bank’s first foray into installment loans, allowing current Marcus customers to break up large purchases into smaller payments.

Loans range between $750 and $10,000 and are repaid over 12 or 18 months at a fixed rate of 10.99% to 25.99%. According to the MarcusPay site, which launched late last week, there are no fees apart from interest.

Goldman Sachs is launching the new product with inaugural partner JetBlue Airways. Although a large portion of the world is not looking to book travel anytime soon due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this partnership was in the works long before the virus spread. Goldman Sachs is hoping customers use MarcusPay to book vacation packages starting in Fall 2020 and pay them off in small chunks.

The new service will enable JetBlue customers to “buy what matters to them, when it matters, and to pay for it in equal payments with no fees or upfront payment,” according to reports.

Marcus is Goldman Sachs’ retail banking platform and represents the organization’s major push into expanding beyond trading, investing, and advisory practices. Marcus currently has over 4 million users and has been around since 2016, though its mobile app launched earlier this year.

“We’re trying to deliver a retail bank branch through your phone,” said Eric Lane, a Goldman Sachs executive earlier this year at the bank’s investor day.

“We aspire to be the leading digital consumer bank,” Lane continued. “We’re starting with loans, we added savings and cards, and we’re working to build out the balance of the digital products suite, including wealth and checking.”

Since then, Goldman has in fact launched checking accounts, and now with installment loans, is coming closer to being a complete retail banking solution for customers.

Beyond MarcusPay’s JetBlue Airways partnership, Goldman Sachs has said other partnerships will follow that embed its services within large retailers and companies.

The notion of paying in smaller chunks is becoming increasingly popular. Though installment loans have been around for a while, fintechs are bringing more ‘buy now, pay later’ services to consumers. The popular Afterpay brought its services to the US last month, while Visa recently partnered with Splitit to do the same. These fintech services are different from a consumer bank offering loans, however, the business goals show the same results—more and more consumers want to buy something up-front, then pay it down over the course of a year or two.