Sep 7, 2017

Square wants to become more like a bank

Kia Kokalitcheva

Courtesy of Square

Square, the payments company co-founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, plans to apply on Thursday for a license to be an industrial loan company, as American Banker first reported on Wednesday and the company has confirmed to Axios. The license would allow it to perform certain banking services like offer loans without having to get licenses in each state or relay on a bank to originate them.

"The primary purpose of the Bank will be to offer business loans to small businesses, similar to the existing business of Square Capital, and to offer deposit products," a Square spokesperson told Axios in a statement. Square Capital has been making small advances to the company's business customers since 2014. The new unit will be based in Utah and get $56 million in capital.

New wave: Square's application comes just a few months after SoFi, another San Francisco tech company that provides loans and refinancing, submitted its own. The FDIC hasn't approved a new license since Walmart unsuccessfully applied for one in 2005.

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 5:45 p.m. ET: 5,763,122 — Total deaths: 358,235 — Total recoveries — 2,389,735 — Map.
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Minnesota activates National Guard amid fallout from George Floyd death

A portrait of George Floyd hangs on a street light pole in Minneapolis. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

George Floyd, 46, moved to Minnesota to improve his life and become his "best self," but instead, he is dead because of Minneapolis police.

The latest: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz declared a state of emergency and activated the state's National Guard in response to violent clashes over the past two days between police and protesters in the Twin Cities.

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Trump signs executive order targeting protections for social media platforms

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday designed to limit the legal protections that shield social media companies from liability for the content users post on their platforms.

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