The Internet Giants are here to offer Financial Services globally

After years of existential fear from finance executives about the big tech companies entering financial services, the time has arrived. Excuses like regulatory cost and complexity, strategic disinterest, and complexity of products are incrementally falling away each and every day. Across every single vertical, something is nipping at the banker's ankles. The splashiest announcement came from Apple, which launched a credit card backed by Goldman Sachs and transacted over the MasterCard network. You can sign up for the card directly from your phone, which integrates it into Apple Wallet and Apple Pay, and provides a 2% cash back on all transactions made with ApplePay. There are no fees on the card other than an interest rate on credit.

For Apple, this financial product is one of a thousand features within their platform. It is no more or less important than music, video, news, email, or podcasts. The presence of credit makes customers more sticky within the ecosystem, offering 3% cash back on all Apple purchases. For Goldman, this is a leapfrog into the consumer market, riding a much better recognized and respected retail brand.

Meanwhile in India, Google and Facebook are battling with Paytm over payments. Facebook's rumored cryptocurrency will target sending remittance over WhatsApp. Google, on the other hand, is working on a service to add a savings account to money movement. This account will be backed by custodied gold, and may include expanded wealth management products -- from mutual funds to insurance -- in the future. None of this should be surprising, as Chinese tech companies have been providing mobile search bundled with online shopping, saving, investing and payments for the last five years. These Asian companies are moving into Europe and the US, sometimes by investing in neobanks or through acquisitions. And American tech companies are moving into Asia.