I believe the reference for real-time transfer was to Zelle which has a number of credit union partners too, not just big banks.
https://www.zellepay.com/get-started
It is interesting that the Apple Cash (the 3/2/1 rebate part) is actually being pushed to Green Dot to manage AND is on Discover's transaction network (not Mastercard). The cash is still only available via the app I think (no physical card - to transfer or spend), but it is not handled via GS. That means there are two partners (aside from Apple) who are getting your information.
https://applecash.greendot.com/termsconditions/
I know Apple did this because of the P2P aspect. All of a sudden, there will be a ton of new money in the Apple Cash ecosystem to push to other Apple users and so forth. It is possible to opt out of Apple Cash (don't have an active account) and get the Daily Cash rebate as a credit to the account.
Finally, this card sets Arbitration as default. Thankfully, you can opt-out in first 90 days via Messages or other means (not just a postal letter like Chase).
https://www.goldmansachs.com/terms-a...-Agreement.pdf
I still am unsure what features of this card will other banks adopt. When you are talking about the "no fees" concept, it tends to be targeted to a customer who forgets to pay on-time and so forth. I still expect GS will report those to the credit agencies. Perhaps this will encourage some digital wallet promotions so that people don't default to Apple Card in their Apple Pay wallet. This has to be a threat to the banks of the regular customer who doesn't try to maximize rewards, but finds existing card rebate programs too complicated. Getting those casual customers to stay in the traditional bank cards ecosystem will take some effort. Most of the existing cards that encourage mobile wallet like Altitude are not in the casual customers portfolio as well.
Don't forget Apple gets a further portion of those transactions that go via Apple Pay (for any card in the wallet, not just the Apple Card). It is small, but might not be insignificant as volume increases. I doubt it exceeds the development/support costs currently.