Square CFO Sarah Friar is leaving the company to become CEO of Nextdoor, a social network for local neighborhoods.
Square CEO Jack Dorsey praised Friar, noting she helped take Square public in 2015, and oversaw the mobile point of sale company's deeper moves into financial services.
The company most recently debuted a consumer lending product, the latest in a series of moves to diversify beyond payment acceptance for micromerchants.
Sarah Friar, chief financial officer of Square Inc., speaks during an interview in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, March 2, 2017. Electronic-payment company, Square Inc., run by Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, is offering a range of new services, including loans and software that lets customers manage inventory and analyze sales. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Square recently announced support for Google Pay, added a connector for iOS devices to improve in-store staff mobility, and partnered with eBay to expand its merchant credit business
These moves follow a series of rollouts over the past several years aiming to make Square an alternative to traditional banks and a competitor to payment fintechs such as Stripe and PayPal.
CNBC reports Friar was interested in seeing the company push deeper into traditional banking, adding that Square's stock rose more than 130 percent this year, though it fell more than 8 percent on Wednesday afternoon following news of Friar's move.
At Nextdoor, Friar will replace Nirav Tolia, who announced his resignation in July.
The payments fintech recently introduced AI agents to its lineup of products banks and credit unions can pick from and add to their existing technology stacks.
Haiqu's new encoding technique allows quantum computers to process high-dimensional financial data, showing improved performance in spotting anomalies.
The Virginia-based bank had been an example of what can go wrong when banks partner with fintechs. After being released from an OCC enforcement action, Blue Ridge is now focused on operating as a traditional community bank, said CEO Billy Beale.
Customers of fintechs like Yotta and Juno, who in some cases lost their life savings, may start to get reimbursed out of the agency's Civil Penalty Fund, but no timeline has been announced for repaying them.
MetroCity Bankshares in Doraville, Georgia, plans to finalize its acquisition of First IC Corp; Rockefeller Capital Management's Brian D. Riley will join BNY Wealth as global head; Blackstone appoints former Morgan Stanley rainmaker Franck Petitgas to a top role in Europe; and more in this week's banking news roundup.