Finance

Jack Dorsey’s Block expands Square Card service to the UK

Published

6 months ago

October 31, 2024

Marco Bello | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON — Block, the payments company owned by tech billionaire Jack Dorsey has launched its corporate card service in the U.K. in a bid to deepen its expansion into the country and take on big incumbents like American Express.

The firm’s business-focused payments arm, Square, told CNBC that it opened registrations for its Square Card product in Britain late Wednesday, marking the first time Block has expanded its business card offering outside North America, where it first launched in 2019.

Currently available in the U.S. and Canada, Square Card is a free business spending card that reduces the time between merchants making a sale and having funds available to spend. It competes with offerings from the likes of American Express and Citigroup.

Samina Hussain-Letch, executive director of Square U.K., said the launch of the firm’s corporate card product in the U.K. would give merchants speedier access to funds and help them more easily manage their daily expenses.

“When designing this product we went back to our mission of making commerce easy,” Hussain-Letch told CNBC. Based on internal research Square found that small and micro businesses “prefer their funds to be consolidated in one place,” she said, adding that real-time access to funds was also an important factor.

In the U.K., Square Card will come up against local banking giants like Lloyds and NatWest. It will also heighten competition for some well-funded European fintech players, including Pleo, Payhawk and Spendesk.

Hussain-Letch highlighted The Vinyl Guys as an example of an early adopter of its corporate card offering. The vehicle branding and signage printing shop based in Stafford used the corporate card as part of a testing phase with domestic U.K. customers.

“We’ve had some great feedback about the benefits of having instant access to funds which really helps our small business sellers to run and grow, as we know that the number one reason small businesses fail in the UK is due to problems with cash flow,” she added.

Merchants can personalize employee spending cards with signatures and business branding.

Once an employee is onboarded onto the Square Card program, they can begin using within their own digital wallet apps. The service doesn’t charge monthly fees, maintenance fees, or foreign exchange fees.

Square is deepening its investment in the U.K. at a time when the country is seeking to be viewed as a destination for global technology businesses.

Entrepreneurs have been warning of a possible exodus of talent from the U.K. in response to the government’s controversial taxation changes.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves hiked Capital Gains Tax (CGT) — a levy on investment profits. But the news offered some relief for technology entrepreneurs who feared a more intense tax raid on the wealthy. The lower capital gains tax rate will be increased to 18% from 10%, while the higher rate will climb to 24% from 20%, Reeves said. The tax hikes are expected to bring in £2.5 billion.

Finance

Trump shifts tariff goals from trade deals

Published

50 minutes ago

May 6, 2025

Business Finance News

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025.

Leah Millis | Reuters

“The Art of the Deal” author President Donald Trump said in a surprising comment Tuesday that the United States does not need to “sign deals” with trade partners, despite top White House officials claiming for weeks that such deals are the administration’s top priority.

“Everyone says, ‘when, when, when are you going to sign deals?'” Trump grumbled during a White House meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“We don’t have to sign deals, they have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of their market,” Trump said.

After weeks of touting how many countries were asking for bilateral trade talks with the United States, the president and his team have yet to announce any formal agreements or frameworks.

“I wish they’d … stop asking, how many deals are you signing this week?” said Trump, clearly frustrated at the mounting pressure on the White House to show progress on trade talks. “Because one day we’ll come and we’ll give you 100 deals,” he said.

Read more CNBC politics coverage

Trump’s effort to deprioritize trade deals Tuesday marked a turn away from what his Treasury Secretary told CNBC the day before.

The U.S. is “very close to some deals,” Scott Bessent said on “Money Movers.”

Trump himself said Sunday on Air Force One that there “could very well be” trade deals rolled out this week. “At the end, I’m setting the deal,” he told reporters en route to Washington.

Speaking last week during a NewsNation town hall, Trump also said that his administration has “potential deals” with India, South Korea and Japan.

He also said last week that negotiations with India were “coming along great” and the U.S. will “likely have a deal with India.”

On Tuesday, however, Trump blamed top aides like Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for overpromising trade deals.

“I think my people haven’t made it clear, we will sign some deals,” said Trump. “But much bigger than that is we’re going to put down the price that people are going to have to pay to shop in the United States. Think of us as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods.”

U.S. markets moved lower Tuesday afternoon after Trump made the comments about deals.

Investors and business leaders are desperately hoping the Trump administration can negotiate a series of bilateral agreements with major U.S. trading partners like Japan, South Korea and India before the full brunt of the tariff induced trade slowdown hits the U.S. economy.

But so far, the Trump administration has not provided any details about any specific deals. Instead, nearly every day, top aides publicly claim that several deals are “close” and could be announced within days.