What you need to know
- Goldman Sachs CEO released a statement addressing Apple Card gender bias today.
- The statement defends Goldman and offers to re-evaluate credit limits for those you request it.
- Allegations over gender discrimination with Apple Card continue to grow.
Goldman Sachs has issued another statement addressing the potential gender bias of its credit approval process for Apple Card. After a tweet from the creator of Ruby On Rails went viral over the weekend, leading the New York Department of Financial Services to open an investigation, Apple and Goldman have been increasingly pressured to address the growing concern that the credit limit approval process was discriminatory.
Today, Goldman Sachs CEO Carey Halio took to the company's support account on Twitter to respond to the allegations:
We hear you. Your concerns are important to us and we take them seriously.We have not and never will make decisions based on factors like gender. In fact, we do not know your gender or marital status during the Apple Card application process.We are committed to ensuring our credit decision process is fair. Together with a third party, we reviewed our credit decisioning process to guard against unintended biases and outcomes.Some of our customers have told us they received lower credit lines than they excepted. In many cases, this is because their existing credit cards are supplemental cards under their spouse's primary account – which may result in the applicant having limited personal credit history. Apple Card's credit decision process is not aware of your marital status at the time of the application.If you believe that your credit line does not adequately reflect your credit history because you may be in a similar situation, we want to hear from you. Based on additional information that we may request, we will re-evaluate your credit line.Thank you for being an Apple Card customer.Carey Halio, Cheif Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs Bank USA
The statement comes after an earlier tweet from the account that attempted to explain the reason that a married couple may end up with two drastically different credit limits, reasoning that it is because the card and the application process is completely individual for each cardholder:
We wanted to address some recent questions regarding the #AppleCard credit decision process. pic.twitter.com/TNZJTUZv36We wanted to address some recent questions regarding the #AppleCard credit decision process. pic.twitter.com/TNZJTUZv36— GS Bank Support (@gsbanksupport) November 11, 2019November 11, 2019
David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby On Rails and one of the leading voices of those calling for the investigation, did not find Goldman's response as anything more than patronizing:
You heard nothing. "I understand your concerns, but here's why they are actually wrong and we are actually right" is not listening. That's patronizing. Please just stop. https://t.co/O0FV0qbBPYYou heard nothing. "I understand your concerns, but here's why they are actually wrong and we are actually right" is not listening. That's patronizing. Please just stop. https://t.co/O0FV0qbBPY— DHH (@dhh) November 11, 2019November 11, 2019
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also experienced the same issue that Hannson did as his wife received ten times less credit than he did, despite them sharing 100% of their finances. He took to Twitter to make this point and to also stress that even though the technical process lives at Goldman, Apple should share responsibility in fixing this problem:
I'm a current Apple employee and founder of the company and the same thing happened to us (10x) despite not having any separate assets or accounts. Some say the blame is on Goldman Sachs but the way Apple is attached, they should share responsibility.I'm a current Apple employee and founder of the company and the same thing happened to us (10x) despite not having any separate assets or accounts. Some say the blame is on Goldman Sachs but the way Apple is attached, they should share responsibility.— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) November 10, 2019November 10, 2019
The allegations began after Hannson and his wife saw a 20X discrepancy between their credit limits for Apple Card, despite their sharing of finances and her having a better credit score than him. Apple has yet to comment on the allegations or the investigation.
