JPMorgan, Apple and Goldman Score a Rare Win-Win-Win

If you can’t get what you want, get what you need. It’s taken the best part of two years, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. has finally helped Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Apple Inc. do just that with the tech giant’s credit card.

It’s a good result for all three firms — Goldman escapes its error-strewn foray into consumer finance, Apple gets a partnership with America’s best-run bank, and JPMorgan wins some useful growth in the form of a $20 billion book of card loans. The deal is far from risk free for JPMorgan, but it helps in the hunt for ways to put some of its roughly $60 billion of excess capital to work — no simple task for a lender already so dominant in the US.