Fintechs like Block and PayPal are battling like never before to be your all-in-one online bank

Core Insights - The three fintech companies, Block, Affirm, and PayPal, are increasingly converging to become all-in-one virtual banks, as highlighted in their recent earnings reports [2] Block (formerly Square) - Block reported disappointing earnings and revenue, missing estimates and resulting in an 18% stock drop, the steepest in five years [3] - CEO Jack Dorsey emphasized the company's strategy to expand from a payments tool to a full commerce platform and enhance Cash App's financial services [4] - Block's market share in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) segment increased to 19%, while Affirm maintained 17% [8] - Cash App's monthly active users have stagnated at 57 million, prompting a focus on customer engagement rather than rapid user acquisition [8][9] Affirm - Affirm reported a 35% increase in gross merchandise volume to $10.1 billion and a 47$770 million, with active users growing 23% to 21 million [11] - The company is expanding into debit services with the Affirm Card, which now has 1.7 million active users, a 136% year-over-year increase [12] - Affirm's strategy includes personalizing user experiences to compete with traditional debit and credit cards [12] PayPal - PayPal's total payment volume for the quarter reached $437.8 billion, slightly below projections, but transaction margins improved to 47% from 45.8% [15] - The company is focusing on enhancing Venmo's business adoption, with a 10% year-over-year increase in total payment volume [16] - PayPal is introducing new services to improve merchant retention and has launched initiatives like PayPal Everywhere to boost engagement [18]