Banking On Facebook

From: Jim K.

Sent: July 12, 2012

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: Banking On Facebook

I like Facebook but I don't think I would ever do my banking on there. You have to draw a line somewhere. Interesting article, please share. Jim
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Can you imagine a world where all of your financial transactions are going through the same account as all of your photos, status updates, videos, game playing, and music discovery? Facebook certainly can, and that looks to be the goal the company is trying to achieve. It’s been obvious for a while that Facebook will make a major push in payments, but it doesn't end there. Facebook is reportedly looking to get into the banking business.

Would you ever do your banking with your Facebook account? Let us know in the comments.

According to a report from CNN Money, the company has been talking to banks about offering solutions that would allow bank customers to do their banking and engage with their banks using their Facebook accounts. Lauren Barack reports:

“There are certain things, whether itʼs financial services, or banking where I donʼt necessarily want my friends to know exactly what Iʼm doing, right?” David Robinson, Facebook’s director of global marketing solutions, U.S. financial services, asked a crowded room of bankers at a Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) seminar in New York late last month. “I want to be able to go in and have an experience with my advisor or my bank and have that be a one-on-one experience.”

Facebook is quietly planning just such an offering with Australia’s Commonwealth Bank. Currently in an internal beta, with the first version built in March, the application is expected to launch sometime this year to customers. It will allow Facebook users who are bank customers to make payments to third parties as well as Facebook friends through the social media channel, according to the bank. Commonwealth will secure transactions with its own authentication system — similar to how payments are secured on its online and mobile banking site, a spokesperson says. Read the whole article.