Is Facebook, the social networking giant, getting into banking services? The tech and banking worlds are abuzz while privacy advocates are up in arms. In a bid to boost engagement and make users stay within the Facebook ecosystem, the company has sought data on card transactions and checking account balances and has proposed giving its users access to banking information such as account balances and fraud alerts through Messenger. While these entreaties are intriguing, the inevitability of Facebook banking is some time away.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a JP Morgan spokesperson said: “sharing our customers’ off-platform transaction data with these platforms, and have had to say no to some things as a result.”
Similarly, “Like many online companies, we routinely talk to financial institutions about how we can improve people’s commerce experiences, like enabling better customer service,” Facebook spokesperson Elisabeth Diana told the Wall Street Journal. “An essential part of these efforts is keeping people’s information safe and secure.”