Block-owned Square rolls out new banking tools for small businesses

The news: Block-owned Square launched new Square Banking tools to help small businesses optimize their cash flows, per a press release.

• Square sellers can now sign up for both a Square payments account and a free Square Checking account through a streamlined application on either the company’s website or point-of-sale (POS) app.
• Square Savings accounts also now feature personalized savings recommendations informed by the seller’s cash flow data. Sellers can automatically allocate funds into dedicated folders for categories like top expenses and investment goals.

Why it matters: Over the last year, Block’s focus has been what it calls “banking our base.” It wants to offer banking services to its four million Square sellers and the 54.9 million people we forecast will use Cash App this year.

To that end, Cash App received FDIC approval in March to finance its Cash App Borrow loans directly to consumers through Square Financial Services—a crucial step toward launching larger lending operations.

Our take: Square wants to bring all of its products and services in one place. Last month, the company launched a new POS app that centralized its vertical-specific offerings.

Streamlining and expanding its banking services directly in the POS app will help Square become an all-in-one solution for its sellers—which small businesses that need to do more with fewer resources will gravitate toward.