Jack Dorsey’s Square starts its own bank for merchants

Jack Dorsey’s financial company Square, which also owns mobile payment service Cash, has just opened up its own bank. According to the company, it’ll be called Square Financial Services, and launch sometime later this year.

https://twitter.com/Square/status/1366528181935702024?s=20

The bank will operate as a separate entity from Square. The firm said it received approval from The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today, a banking regulator in the US, to start its own banking service:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Board has voted to conditionally approve Square’s application for deposit insurance related to its Industrial Loan Company (ILC) bank charter. Square has also received charter approval from the Utah Department of Financial Institutions.

Initially, the bank will offer loans and other financial services to Square merchants in the US. The company started by providing its own hardware and software payment solution to small vendors. However, in the last few years, it has started crediting services too.

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As TechCrunch notes, banking services like Square’s aim to provide easy access to capital for small businesses that might have difficulty in getting it through traditional financial institutions.