Square's Jack Dorsey muscles in where banks have failed to serve

Billionaire Square co-founder Jack Dorsey says big banks have allowed his payments disrupter to muscle in on their territory by breaking the trust of customers and serving small business borrowers poorly, or not at all.

Mr Dorsey, who also co-founded social media platform Twitter, said a long history of corruption had tarnished the reputation of the financial services sector, but with Square he hoped to restore trust in the industry.

“The banking industry was invented in the 1600s in Florence and there has been corruption ever since,” Mr Dorsey said while in Melbourne for the second anniversary of Square’s local launch.

“It’s not something that’s new to a particular country, it’s just inherent in the work.”

Mr Dorsey founded Square in 2009 alongside Jim McKelvey and listed the business on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015.

The company, which started out offering small businesses an easy, quick way to take credit card payments via a small square-shaped device that plugs into the headphone jack of smartphones, is now valued at $US22.5 billion. Square has since expanded into more traditional banking territory with Square Cash, which lets people transfer money to each other without setting up a bank account, and Square Capital, which lends to small business.

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Source: Square’s Jack Dorsey muscles in where banks have failed to serve | afr.com