San Francisco-based Square Inc. has opened a Utah-chartered and FDIC-insured industrial bank in Salt Lake City. Square Financial Services is the state’s 16th industrial bank. The new bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Inc., a publicly traded financial services company best known for its smartphone and tablet credit card reading devices and applications. Square was founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
On Sept. 17, 2017, Square submitted an application to the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to establish the new bank. The application was materially amended in December 2018 and the state commissioner of financial institutions granted conditional approval of the application in an order dated March 17, 2020. After satisfying all opening requirements, the department authorized the bank to open for business effective earlier this month. Square Financial Services is the second new industrial bank to open in Utah since 2008.
The bank will offer banking products and services, including deposits, primarily to a nationwide market of small businesses, including those who operate as merchants on Square’s payment processing platform.
Utah industrial banks have total assets of $171 billion, a large portion of the $365 billion in assets held by all Utah-chartered banks, credit unions and other depository institutions.