I’m not sure I buy it, but Slate‘s Karim Bardeesy makes an interesting — if slightly tongue-in-cheek — case that Apple owes it to the country to join the ranks of the money changers.
The situation is dire, he says. The giant banks that took those taxpayer billions last fall aren’t lending it out, and credit is getting desperately tight. “If only someone, some company could step up as an act of duty for which they would receive the reward of profit.”
The company he has in mind, of course, is Apple Inc. (AAPL), with its storied brand, proven retailing instincts, fanatical customer base, zero debt and $28.1 billion in cash.
“Imagine what would happen,” Bardeesy writes, “if Apple sequestered just half of this cash as seed funding for its new bank and set aside $2.5 billion of that half for capital and startup costs. At regulated reserve ratios, that means the company could lend out up to $100 billion to hungry consumers and businesses.” (link)
“The personal-electronics giant,” he writes, “is a personal-finance giant in waiting.”
Apple’s bank wouldn’t need to be a giant to have an impact — or to make a profit.
“This would be a niche bank,”
Bardeesy
suggests, “taking deposits disproportionately from Apple consumers and lending for the kinds of ventures that, well, your typical Apple consumer might be undertaking: creative small business projects, distressed urban lofts, student lending, hybrid vehicles, and renewable energy.”
Would Steve Jobs do it? Not likely. One of the ways he’s nurtured the company back to health is by sticking to his knitting and not indulging in diversionary acquisitions or enterprises.
Besides, the Apple Bank name is already taken, by a 50-branch brick-and-mortar outfit in the Big Apple.