Social media technology: the Future of banking

Last month, France's biggest bank, Groupe BPCE, made headlines over the launch of a new domestic electronic wallet service that allows clients to transfer money in the form of Twitter messages ("tweets"), the news said November 25. The service, which relies on Twitter's open software standards, is an integral part of the development of banking and financial services with the power of technology to innovate banks and provide new services to their customers.

The French bank's move is also in line with Twitter's own calculations, with Twitter itself eyeing online payments as social networks seek new sources of revenue outside advertising revenue. With social media providers such as Facebook and WhatsApp aggressively moving into paying markets, and looking for a spoonful of gold, we can now peek at the prospect of paying the market, where consumers, along with merchants, can transfer money across the border with the ease and leisure to log on to their Facebook account.

The combination of social media and banking can not only provide easy access to easy-to-use services, but also contribute to better transaction security and compliance control. So what is the future of the integration technology of social media and banking? Are the compliance controls and security measures around this integration technology going to work? What steps need to be taken to make this future picture real?

Social media banking Globalization

Social networks have the existing user base and the trust base they need to be a synthesizer of payments and transfers. The most popular social networks today, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have already accumulated thousands of users and users like to use them. Here, the existing fan base will enable these social media giants to provide new banking services.

The French BPCE Bank's Twitter service is only a small step towards a bigger future for social networks. Today, the e-wallet service offers French Twitter users a new way to transfer money to each other, without resorting to a bank, through a tweet. Logically, the next step is to open the service to EU clients and then to international clients. So what do you need to do to internationalize this service? In France, you need a bank account that can send and receive bank statements. However, to extend the service to the EU requires more rules and regulations. and to promote this service outside the EU, the rules to be followed will be more complex, and the details of who should send the money and who will receive it.

These compliance controls are often an impediment to international payments. But as banks combine with existing social media networks and user data, the programs will seamlessly connect with the parties involved.

Social media needs compliance control

Integrating social media into banks and payment services will support anti-money-laundering initiatives, such as KYC. Many years ago, a passport and other documents were required to open an account at a bank's entity branch, and these documents are now easily forged. The advantage of using social media is that users leave footprints on the web, and based on their social networks and how they use social networks, you can draw a fairly accurate profile of the user. The reliance base in social media also means that users are likely to share any additional data that meets compliance obligations.

Banks and payment service providers can gain a clearer picture of the customer's acquisition to monitor potential fraudulent activities. For example, you can look at how customers use Internet accounts and their trading histories to draw a more comprehensive picture of who customers are and whether their recent activities are consistent with their use history. These online footprints are extremely difficult to forge, compared with passports and bills. And, for customers, they benefit from knowing they are protected.

Pay for the future

Social media and banking services are a natural match, supporting banks to build brand awareness and encouraging customers to participate as the payment industry evolves. The Peer-to-peer International payment market is currently about 500 billion dollars, but it is still a dwarf compared to the Cross-border E-commerce market. Banks continue to use the technology of APIs to integrate into social media networks and to provide more payment services.

As electronic payments continue to evolve, users will be able to pay for services and products, transfer money to other users, and implement other banking services more easily than ever before, only by logging into social media accounts. For example, businessmen can use this platform to provide users with special products or services. And because Facebook already has a customer's bank detail, the product will automatically be paid.

Merchants will also receive payments on their social network accounts. On LinkedIn, merchants can use the platform to engage in specific purchases, such as buying business cards or finding services. The use of these design platforms can also expand the financial movement of Peer-to-peer finance.

In other words, integrating payment services into social media places such as Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking platforms as the ultimate destinations for online payments and E-commerce. The French BPCE bank stepped into Twitter to pay a small step, but only a head start.

(editor: Mengyishan)