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Jack Dorsey

Executive

PPP
Type
Person
Role
Executive
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

Co-founder and "Block Head" of Block, formerly Square. Block says it facilitated about $1.5 billion of PPP loans to more than 150,000 small businesses; its subsidiary Square Capital is the lender of record on 72,564 of them, all made in 2021.

Identity and role

Jack Dorsey is Block Head, chairman and co-founder of Block, Inc., according to the company's leadership page. He signed Block's 2021 annual report on February 24, 2022 as president, chief executive officer and chairman. Square, Inc. changed its name to Block, Inc. on December 10, 2021; the Square name now belongs to the seller business. During the pandemic Dorsey also ran Twitter, which he had co-founded: in May 2020 he told Twitter employees that some of them could work from home permanently.

Biography / career arc

Dorsey and Jim McKelvey founded Square in San Francisco in 2009 to let small businesses accept card payments. The company's Class A shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on November 19, 2015. By the time of the pandemic, Block's businesses included Square for sellers, Square Capital for small-business loans and advances, Square Payroll and Cash App; it later added the music platform TIDAL (majority stake bought April 30, 2021) and a bitcoin-focused unit launched in the third quarter of 2021. On March 1, 2021 Square Financial Services, an industrial loan company chartered by the FDIC and the State of Utah, opened for business.

Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role

Square took PPP to its own sellers. In 2020 Square Capital arranged the loans and Celtic Bank, a Utah industrial bank, issued them. In 2021 Square Capital, LLC lent in its own name. Block's 2021 annual report puts the whole program at "approximately $1.5 billion of PPP loans, excluding canceled loans, providing more than 150,000 loans to small businesses." By December 31, 2021 the SBA had forgiven about $725.9 million of them. Square approved and funded its last PPP applications on May 21, 2021, when the program's money ran out.

The SBA's loan-level data show the 2021 half. By our count, Square Capital, LLC is the originating lender on 72,564 PPP loans for $0.68 billion, all approved in 2021, an average of about $9,400. JPMorgan Chase Bank's average was about $97,800. The 10-K warns that Square Capital bears the risk if the SBA declines to honor its guarantee "due to documentation or verification errors."

On April 22, 2020, Representative Gregory Meeks, joined by Representatives Al Green, Emanuel Cleaver and Bill Foster, wrote to Dorsey, as Square's chief executive, and to the heads of PayPal, Intuit, Kabbage, BlueVine, OnDeck, Fundbox, Divvy, Lendio and Fundera. They asked the fintech companies to partner with minority depository institutions and community development financial institutions to get PPP money to underserved communities.

Their own relief

The SBA's PPP data show no loan to Square, Inc., Block, Inc. or Twitter as a borrower. A Philadelphia software firm named Square Inc. that borrowed $31,400 is unrelated. No relief loan to Dorsey personally appears in the documents cited here.

Dorsey has not been charged with any crime. His personal obligations to regulators come through the bank charter. The FDIC's approval of Square Financial Services was contingent on two agreements with Block. Block must keep the bank's leverage ratio at 20% or more, hold a $50 million reserve deposit at an unaffiliated bank, keep its seats on the bank's board to 25% or fewer, and give the FDIC a contingency plan that includes options for winding down or selling the bank. Block's 10-K says Dorsey, "who is considered our controlling shareholder in this context, also agreed to cause us to perform under these agreements."

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Block's leadership page lists Dorsey as Block Head, chairman and co-founder. See also the Square company profile and the profile of Jacqueline Reses, who led Square Capital.

Sources

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