JPMorgan Chase has agreed to acquire the Apple credit card issuing business from Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Jan. 7 local time.

The deal was reached after about a year of negotiations. Through the sale of the Apple Card business, Goldman Sachs will in effect withdraw from consumer finance.

JPMorgan is buying about $20 billion in card loan balances. It is acquiring them at a price discounted by more than $1 billion, the report said.

Apple launched Apple Card in 2019 in partnership with Goldman Sachs.

Apple Card offers Apple users an easy payment function linked to smartphones and cashback benefits. But Goldman Sachs has suffered losses of about $7 billion across its consumer finance business since 2020, including Apple Card. Critics say high delinquency rates and bad loans held it back.

The WSJ said the deal was also delayed because a large share of borrowers had low credit ratings, reflecting a higher risk of losses than the industry average.

Through the acquisition, JPMorgan will continue issuing cards to both new and existing Apple Card users. It is also reviewing a joint launch of new deposit accounts with Apple. Existing Goldman Sachs deposit account customers will be able to choose whether to switch to JPMorgan. The two sides plan to carry out the transition over about 2 years.