Square to roll out checking and savings accounts for business customers

Square is quickly expanding its territory beyond payments. The firm, which obtained a bank charter in March, is reportedly on the cusp of offering checking and savings accounts for its small-business customers.

Why should we care?
Square’s plans were revealed in code in a recent app update for iPhone and iPad. The future product rollouts, however, likely won’t come as huge surprises to industry watchers. Square has steadily been moving its product suite beyond payments, covering such areas as order and inventory management, online-to-offline integration, and e-commerce tools. With the bank license, checking and savings accounts are a logical extension of Square’s offerings as it seeks to provide a one-stop shop for businesses. There is also competitive pressure from Shopify, which last year rolled out a checking account for sellers. According to the code, Square won’t charge fees for the account, and will offer a 0.5% interest rate through 2021 on savings accounts. “We see a meaningful opportunity to expand access to banking products for small businesses, and we opened our bank, Square Financial Services, in March to pursue this effort,” the company said in its most recent shareholder letter.