Square Debuts Instant Deposit In UK

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and Chief Executive of Square announced news on Wednesday (March 21) of the launch of a new Instant Deposit service in the U.K. geared toward small businesses SMBs.

In a press release, Square said with Instant Deposit, sellers receive money in their bank accounts in minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Since our founding, we’ve heard that cash flow is a major pain point for small businesses. Our products were all built to provide fast and predictable access to funds to help businesses of all sizes remain competitive and agile. We believe our sellers should have the ability to access the money they’ve made as fast as possible, so we’re thrilled to provide this new service to businesses across the UK,” Dorsey said in the release.

With the launch of Instant Deposit, Square said sellers can click a button in the Square App and transfer the funds into their bank account in roughly 20 minutes. In order for the service to work, all merchants must do is link their bank account to their Square account.

The announcement came as Dorsey held a fireside chat in the U.K. hosted by the British Library’s Business and IP Centre, during which he said 75 percent of Square’s U.K. customers were located outside London — businesses not yet a part of the credit and debit card economy.

Late February, Square posted results that topped the Street amid a diversifying model that saw traction not just in gross payment volumes with its traditional enterprise point-of-sale business and Square Capital, but also in consumer-focused initiatives, including its Cash App. The headline numbers were thus: Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter came in at $0.08 per share, a penny better than the Street. Adjusted revenues grew by 47 percent year over year to $283 million, better than the $266.3 million analysts had estimated (and is defined as total net revenue minus transaction-based costs). Growth accelerated from the 45 percent seen in the third quarter. Gross payments volume gathered steam, up 31 percent in the fourth quarter from last year to $17.9 billion. Of that, said Square, larger sellers (with volumes above $125,000) stood out, with GPV from that growing 44 percent year over year and representing 47 percent of the payments volume.