Square launches small business banking

Reuters

Published Jul 20, 2021 08:04AM ET

Updated Jul 20, 2021 08:55AM ET

By Anna Irrera

(Reuters) - Square Inc (NYSE:SQ), the company led by Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey, is launching banking services for small businesses, as it continues to grow beyond payments processing.

Square Banking will offer small businesses savings and checking accounts, as well as its existing lending offering which has been renamed Square Loans, the San Francisco-based company said on Tuesday.

Square Checking will have no account minimums, overdraft fees, or recurring fees and saving accounts will offer a 0.5% annual percent yield on deposits.

Square hopes its new checking and savings accounts, which build upon its debit card offering, will be attractive to small businesses who have struggled to gain access to more mainstream banking services, said Christina Riechers, Square Banking's head of product.

"There is no monthly fee so we see this as having high potential to get folks into more formalized business banking," Riechers said in an interview.

Deposits collected from small businesses will be lent back through Square Loans, she said.

The new services come following the launch of the company's industrial bank, Square Financial Services, which began operations in March after completing the charter approval process with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions.

The industrial bank is part of efforts by Square to expand its revenue stream beyond facilitating card payments for small businesses.

The company's consumer business Cash App has been booming, with first quarter revenue excluding bitcoin investing up 139% year on year to $529 million.

While initially, only small business deposits will be brought under the Square Financial Services umbrella, over time the company will look to have the bank work across its range of products and services, a spokesman said.

The renamed lending business will continue to offer loans to sellers based on data from their transactions.