Does Apple want to be a bank? The technology company may not have a banking licence but it has the financial firepower necessary to do the job. Free cash flow last year was close to $93bn. Cash and marketable securities add up to $193bn. That is almost twice the market value of Goldman Sachs.

Apple’s decision to extend buy now, pay later loans itself, instead of relying on partner Goldman Sachs, is a noteworthy marker of its ambitions in financial services.

Apple Pay Later will check consumer credit and offer loans via a subsidiary, providing users with the ability to spread out purchase costs in four payments over six weeks. BNPL is a fast-growing market. Globally, it is forecast to grow 27 per cent a year in the next three years, according to fintech research group Kaleido Intelligence.