Goldman Sachs reportedly wants to exit its partnership with Apple on the Apple Card, as high-yield savings accounts and low-interest credit card loans have cost the bank billions.

According to The Wall Street Journal, some Goldman employees say cutting ties with Apple Card won’t happen soon enough following the bank's dismal foray into consumer loans.

The Apple Card debuted in 2019. By 2022, over 6.7 million U.S. iPhone users and other Apple fans had an Apple Card. Purchases made with Apple Pay offer users 2% cashback.

In April, Goldman Sachs partnered with Apple to offer cardholders as much as 4.15% interest on cash deposits. Soon after, several executives got cold feet.

Even before adding the high APY savings feature, most banks saw the Apple Card as too risky to take on. Barclay’s, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Synchrony all passed on it. Goldman Sachs was the exception.

What was supposed to be a “game-changing” credit card now has some serious question marks.

For its part, Goldman dodged questions about its future with Apple Card during its recent quarterly earnings report. When asked about the bank’s relationship with Apple and GM, CEO David Solomon said: "Our partnerships with Apple and GM are long-term contracts, and we don't have the unilateral right to exit those partnerships.”

With Solomon keeping quiet, it’s important to read between the lines.

Does Goldman want out of high-interest savings accounts?

It’s been a saver’s market since the Fed began raising interest rates in 2022. But the big returns on high-interest savings accounts and money market accounts will eventually come to an end.

If reports are true, Goldman Sachs' exit from high-yield savings account business could be a bad omen for high APY products.

When Goldman launched Apple's high-yield savings product back in April, Apple’s VP of Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey, said: “Our goal is to build tools that help users lead healthier financial lives, and building Savings into Apple Card in Wallet enables them to spend, send, and save Daily Cash directly and seamlessly—all from one place.”

At that time, the Fed had already bumped interest rates all the way up to 5%. By September, the Fed’s benchmark rate had risen to 5.5%.

So, it made some kind of sense for consumer savings accounts to offer APYs somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.15%.

No wonder the Apple Card has been such a huge consumer hit. The card took the number one spot in its product category in J. D. Powers and Associates’ rankings for three years in a row.

A Fed interest rate drop in 2024 could end the party

Apple and Goldman Sachs aren’t the only ones out there with high-yield savings accounts offering 2.5% APY or more. This year it hasn’t been uncommon to spot 4% offers.

But it turns out these eye-popping rates aren’t the norm. Industry data shows the national average yield for savings accounts is a paltry 0.45%.

When the Fed inevitably begins to push rates back down again to keep the economy moving, high APY accounts will make even less sense to banks’ bottom lines than they do now.

That could be the day the saver’s market comes to an end across the board. But lower rates for borrowers will likely bring relief to consumer credit and mortgage markets.