Apple Card Credit Manager Leaves for X1 Credit Card Startup
Apple’s credit manager for the Apple Card, Abhi Pabba, has left the company.
Pabba, who worked at Apple’s office in Austin, Texas, will join California-based credit card company X1 starting next week as chief risk officer, according to X1 CEO Deepak Rao.
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Pabba specializes in credit and risk assessment. Prior to Apple, he worked at Capital One, where he focused on credit card authorizations.
Over the past few years, there have been a series of exits from the consumer business of Goldman Sachs, which handles the lending and issuing parts of Apple Card.
But Apple’s defections have been less apparent. The tech giant’s goal with the Apple Card isn’t to generate revenue from solid lending decisions, but to make the iPhone more essential to its customers. The map is primarily accessed and managed through the iPhone.
CNBC reported this week that Goldman Sachs is debating internally whether the company’s card loans, which are primarily tied to the Apple Card, are at an unacceptable loss. A large percentage of loans are given to customers with low FICO scores. Apple Card is also having trouble with automated customer service disputes due to the card’s rapid growth.
Apple is also expanding by offering credit to its customers through a feature called Apple Pay Later, which splits purchases into four weekly payments. Apple handles some of its own credit decisions for its buy now, pay later product.
Abhi Pabba, Chief Risk Officer at X1
X1
Pabba told CNBC that his work at Apple and Capital One involves monitoring credit cardholder metrics as a whole, including how much users spend, the percentage of them who end up in arrears, and the average of the approved credit scores.
“I would say these three [metrics] are of a pretty high standard, but you know, Capital One takes great pride in being very, very thorough with these things, and of course Apple had similar standards as well,” Pabba said.
Pabba is expected to develop X1’s underwriting policies, which will use alternative data, such as bank account access or Plaid information, in addition to traditional FICO credit scores to determine credit limits and rates for customers. .
X1a backing from Silicon Valley venture capitalists like PayPal founders Max Levchin and David Sacks, among others. Its main product is a credit card with deep application integration, which allows users to create new credit card numbers for individual transactions and easily monitor spending.
X1 also plans to offer higher credit limits to certain customers, which can help reduce total credit usage.
X1 currently has a waiting list for its credit card, which it says is currently used by thousands of people. He also hired a new CFO to position the company to increase enrollment to accelerate growth.
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