Block, the payments company chaired by Jack Dorsey, has agreed to pay $45 million to settle claims from 46 US states that it mishandled fraud on Cash App, its money-transfer and digital-banking app.
The settlement is the latest sign that state regulators are moving into ground the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has vacated under the Trump administration.
According to a New York court filing tied to the settlement, Block was accused of telling customers that Cash App carried the security of a traditional bank and that their balances were FDIC-insured, when that protection would apply only if a partner bank failed.
Regulators also said the company lacked effective fraud-prevention procedures and often failed to investigate reports of unauthorised transactions.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!One detail runs through the whole case. Cash App did not offer a live customer-support phone number until 2021, and investigators said the firm had been aware of the gap since 2018. In the meantime, scammers set up fake help lines to trick users into handing over account access.
