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Square Takes Aim at JPMorgan With Checking, Savings Accounts

  • Hidden iPhone, iPad app code indicates offerings nearing debut
  • Square Financial Services recently approved for bank charter
A customer inserts a credit card into Square device while making a payment in San Francisco.

A customer inserts a credit card into Square device while making a payment in San Francisco.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Updated on

Square Inc., whose technology has already upended the way small businesses take card payments, is quietly preparing to offer checking and savings accounts to those customers, taking direct aim at behemoths such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. Square’s shares jumped on the news.

Evidence of the still-unannounced plan appeared in hidden code in a recent update to Square’s app for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad. The code references both types of accounts and indicates that the checking version will integrate with Square’s existing debit card for businesses. It also suggests that Square will differentiate itself by eschewing monthly service charges and fees tied to minimum balances and overdrafts.