[purple_ferret]

As a small business owner do you really want your banking to be tied to your POS system though? Why not offer Square 'housing' too. Sell with Square and live in a Square condo[0]

[0] So long as you never ever leave Square for another system.

[arcticbull]

Generally speaking banks leave a lot to be desired in the US, which is Square's banking charter. They can make a better bank, and they can provide complementary financial services in one place.

For what it's worth extant banking competitors offer substantially all the major services that Square does. JPM is a bank, a broker, a merchant acquirer (Chase Paymentech), they're a credit card issuer, a debit card issuer, an unsecured lender, as secured lender (mortgage broker).

Heck, Chase even operates a private instance of VisaNet.

What Square's doing isn't any different really, it's just flashier and better executed. And also, whatever this embarrassing crypto thing is: [1]

[1] https://twitter.com/tbd54566975