Apple plans to build its own financial infrastructure for payments and lending

According to people with knowledge of the matter, Apple will build its own technology and infrastructure for financial services.

The initiative is internally codenamed "Breakout" as an allusion to the idea of users breaking free from the current establishment players in the financial system.

Apple has always believed that controlling the user experience and its own process offers better experiences for customers and a bigger slice of the revenue pie. Apple can be less affected by failures from external partners.

Financial services is a relatively new part of Apple's overall product strategy and is being thoroughly applied to that philosophy. Payment processing, risk assessment for lending, fraud analysis, credit checks, and additional customer-service functions such as the handling of disputes are included in the plans.

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The sources say that Apple is moving toward bringing all this in-house because of upcoming products. Apple Card may still stick with Goldman.

In some cases, like the company's planned Apple Pay Later feature, Apple might lean on a partner for some aspects like long-term loans while using its own tech and infrastructure for short-term loans.

Apple Pay Later was named as one of the features to which these new plans will likely apply, and Apple has other new financial products in the works, too, like a subscription service bundle for iPhones and some Apple services.

The company is trying to transition from a hit-based business like a new iPhone or other product that may or may not generate huge demand based on various factors, to one that is more focused on financial services.