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LONDON — Payments company Block, owned by tech billionaire Jack Dorsey, has deepened its presence in the UK and launched a corporate card service in the country to take on larger incumbents. american express.
Square, the company’s business-focused payments division, told CNBC that it began registering its Square Card product in the UK late Wednesday. This is the first time Block has expanded its business card offering outside of North America, where it first launched in 2019.
Square Card, currently available in the U.S. and Canada, is a free business spending card that reduces the time between merchants making a sale and getting usable funds. compete with products such as american express and citygroup.
Samina Hussein Letci, executive director of Square UK, said the launch of the company’s business cards product in the UK will give merchants faster access to funds and easier control over their everyday spending. He said it would be.
“When designing this product, we went back to our mission of making commerce easier,” Hussein Letci told CNBC. Based on internal research, Square said it found that small businesses and small businesses “prefer to consolidate their funds in one place,” and real-time access to funds is also a key factor. he added.
In the UK, Squarecard will face off against large local banks including: Lloyd’s and natwest. It will also increase competition for some well-funded European fintechs, such as Pleo, Payhawk and Spendesk.
Hussain-Letch highlighted The Vinyl Guys as an example of an early adopter of the company’s corporate card product. The Stafford-based vehicle branding and signage printing company used the corporate card as part of a testing phase for customers across the UK.
“We know cashflow problems are the biggest reason small businesses fail in the UK, so we’ve had some great feedback about the benefits of instant access to funding that really helps small business sellers run and grow. “There was,” she added.
Merchants can personalize employee spending cards by adding signatures and business branding.
Once employees join the Square Card program, they can start using it within their own digital wallet app. There are no monthly fees, maintenance fees, or exchange fees for this service.
Square is stepping up investment in the UK as the country seeks to be seen as a global technology business destination.
Entrepreneurs have warned that there could be an exodus of talent from the UK following the government’s controversial tax changes.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves increased capital gains tax (CGT), the tax on investment profits. But the news came as some relief to technology entrepreneurs who were worried about further tax hikes on the wealthy. The lower tax rate on capital gains will increase from 10% to 18%, while the higher tax rate will increase from 20% to 24%, Reeves said. The tax increase is expected to generate 2.5 billion pounds in revenue.
