Facebook has asked U.S. banks to share financial information about their clients, so that it can offer new services for their users to buy, sell, and monitor their various account balances.
In the past year, the tech giant has asked JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and U.S. Bancorp to discuss the possibility of hosting its services to bank customers on Facebook Messenger, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
In its proposals, Facebook has talked about obtaining card transaction and checking account balances of these bank’s customers, which would be translated to a feature that would show users their balances and even alert them to potential fraud.
Facebook told the banks that they are seeking to increase user interaction time in Facebook Messenger.
People familiar with the discussions said that data privacy is the main concern of the banks that are in conversations with Facebook.
Facebook was involved in a data breach with Cambridge Analytica, in which 87 million users’ personal information was accessed without their consent. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, appeared before Congress earlier this year to testify about Facebook privacy and security.
At least one large U.S. bank has already pulled out of negotiations with Facebook due to concerns over their customers privacy, sources told the Journal.
Last month, Facebook experienced the biggest ever one-day loss in stocks, dropping by 19 percent.
