Square Loans: $1.32B Funded in Q1, Expands to Japan

Square Loans, a subsidiary of Block, originated 129,000 small business loans for a total of $1.32B in the first quarter.

“Strength in banking gross profit was driven by continued strong demand for loans and healthy repayment trends,” the company said. Loss rates also remained consistent with historical ranges.

The company also expanded its business loan program to Japan and it has so far exceeded their expectations.

“Clearly, quick access to funds and a seamless product experience are true differentiators relative to existing financing options for SMBs in Japan,” said Block CFO Amrita Ahuja.

Separately, Block CEO Jack Dorsey spent an inordinate amount of time talking about Bitcoin in the quarterly shareholder letter, his entire message in fact.

It opened up with the following quotation: “Why the hell are you all spending so much time on bitcoin?”

“We get this question a lot. We’ll use this quarter’s letter to answer it,” Dorsey wrote in response.