Apple have no legal banking charter in any country. Your other commenters have already pointed out that Goldman are the bank.

Apple have essentially white labeled the bank, and of course the bank is going to happy with that. There's no panic, they know they are needed.

BNPL is different though, Apple will take that balance sheet hit because they can afford to do so. That won't be much of an issue I believe because the core audience of the iPhone now are basically well off enough to afford the device in the first place. It's low risk for Apple while gaining the data of the transactions and credit references at very low cost.

Even Monza started off as the hipster brand band but eventually had to conform to a way that everyone uses a traditional bank. I still think that will be acquired by a traditional bank in the end.