Over the weekend, global bank Citi asked consumers through its official Facebook and Twitter channels: If you could do your banking on Facebook – Would you?
As of 2:30pm ET today, Citi had 777 individuals “like” the post and 48 people “share” the post, but the majority of commenters wrote that they would be reluctant to do Facebook banking because of security concerns. A sampling of those hesitations:
- Tetsutaro Hirano: I don’t wanna do my banking on FB, but the idea that banks help business matching in FB may be interesting.
- Greg Kraft: Security would be the only issue. There would have to be another password for the Citibank Facebook app.
- Adeline Sim Boon Yeow: love too but will still think about the security issue provided the level of security is high
- Michael E. Rubin: There would be no way in hell in which I would do my banking via Facebook. Especially if Citibank was a part of it. This bank has a major communication problem between the financial centers, and the customer service center. I would be too worried they would lose my money during a facebook transaction, and would tell me to call Facebook to complain!
- Eric Bathke: over my dead body
Still, there was some positive feedback to Citi’s query. Harry Dent, for example, wrote:
- I think they should allow banking on facebook but when you set it up you have to set some questions and answers like security questions and every time you try to view or complete something you have to answer the question(s)…? But sounds like a good idea.
We reached out to Citi this morning to find out what its aim is, but have yet to hear back. To us, Citi’s question points to how banks, even U.S. ones, are seriously toying with the possibilities of Facebook banking.
Separately, Citi told Bank Innovation in March that “developing a solution for consumers who are looking for a social banking experience” was one of the winning ideas in its “Citi Ideas Challenge” employee contest.
Other banks, meanwhile, have made their social media banking plays known.
In June, ASB Bank’s New Zealand announced that its customers will soon be able to pay their Facebook friends through the social platform thanks to a mobile app update announced this month. Missouri-based Vantage Credit Union, for another, launched Twitter banking a few years back.