Block Inc (SQ) News & EventsSQNews & EventsBlock Inc

Square Expands Partnership with Thrive to Enhance E-commerce Management

Square announced that it has expanded its partnership with Thrive, to give sellers "a seamless way to manage their catalogs, sales, and stock between their in-store and e-commerce platforms, including Shopify." Square, a unit of Block, said: "The new integration enables retailers to create and edit products within Square, and have those updates automatically reflected on Shopify. With Square serving as the source of truth, sellers can avoid overselling, automate re-ordering, and save time managing multiple systems."

Block Expects Q3 Growth Slowdown, Shares Drop 4%

Shares of Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, are trading lower after Owen Jennings, who is the Block Business Lead, spoke at UBS's 2025 Global Technology and AI Conference. During the event, Jennings stated: "So I don't think there's that much new to share relative to Investor Day and Q3 earnings. I think on the Square side, we continue to expect GPV growth in the low double-digit range. So a slight deceleration relative to Q3, largely driven by some weather events in October. And then also we're comping a pretty strong holiday spend season last year. So that's kind of in the 10%-ish range there for Square. And then on the Cash App side, we're excited about the strength that we're seeing with Cash App Actives. We're excited about the launch of Cash App Green. And so I think that overall guide of about 19% gross profit growth and 39% growth in adjusted operating income is still the right ballpark just in terms of how we're seeing things shake out in the quarter." In afternoon trading following the presentation, shares of Block are down $2.75, or 4% to $61.60.

Block to pay $80M for violating Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering laws

In a coordinated enforcement action by 48 state financial regulators, Block will pay an $80M fine and undertake corrective action for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws that safeguard the financial system from illicit use. More than 50M consumers use Cash App, Block's mobile payment service, to spend, send, store, and invest money. In the multistate settlement signed this week, Block agreed to pay the assessed penalty to the state agencies, hire an independent consultant to review the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of its BSA/AML program, and submit a report to the states within nine months. Block then will have 12 months to correct any deficiencies found in the review after the report is filed. State regulators in Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Maine, Texas, and Washington State led the multistate enforcement effort. Block cooperated with the states in the settlement. Under BSA/AML rules, financial services firms are required to perform due diligence on customers, including verifying customer identities, reporting suspicious activity, and applying appropriate controls for high-risk accounts. State regulators found Block was not in compliance with certain requirements, creating the potential that its services could be used to support money laundering, terrorism financing, or other illegal activities.