Square Eyes Banking Services Via Cash App

Square is in consideration of offering traditional banking services through its peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app.

At Recode’s annual Code Commerce conference in New York on Tuesday (Sept. 18), Square Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar admitted the company is considering “lots of ideas,” including savings products and allowing customers to trade stocks.

“Anything you do today with a bank account, you should look to the Cash App to begin to emulate more and more of that,” Friar said, according to CNBC, adding that the amount of money the average customer was storing on the app is what led to the discussions. “It’s definitely a big balance. And we’re starting to think about, are there other things we could do for our customers there? Maybe help them with their savings. How can we help them make their money work for them?”

Not only does research show that Square’s Cash App is growing faster than PayPal‘s Venmo, but the company recently boosted its presence in small business (SMB) lending through Square Capital. In addition, eBay announced in July that it will begin offering merchants up to $100,000 in financing through Square Capital.

In August, Square managed to beat Wall Street estimates on both earnings and revenue when second quarter earnings went live — powered largely by higher-than-expected transaction volume and marked growth in its subscription services business.

Square’s subscriptions and “services-based revenue” doubled year over year on an adjusted basis, driven by strong performances by Square Cash, Caviar, Instant Deposit and Square Capital. Square Cash customers also spent a total of $250 million with Cash Card, tripling the amount consumers spent in December 2017, while Square Capital’s performance was strong with more than 60,000 loans totaling $390 million.

In addition, shares of the company are up more than 200 percent year over year, and increased by more than 20 percent in the past month.