Facebook could launch its money transfer service

The social media network Facebook could launch its money transfer service; a Twitter leak revealed. The leak is based on screen shots taken by a US computer science student who uncovered what he believes is Facebook’s next move to make its stand-alone messaging service more attractive. The study says that users may be able to send each other money using Facebook Messenger in a very familiar way like sharing or exchanging photos within private messages.

According to the reports, a student at Stanford University in California, Andrew Aude, used an iOS tool called Cycript on his iPhone to explore the ‘upcoming’ feature, which has yet to be confirmed by Facebook.

During tests, Aude was reportedly only able to get debit cards to work with the system, credit cards and bank accounts did not work. “Based on my understanding of the debit interchange rates, each transaction will cost Facebook roughly $US0.40 to $US0.50 (Durbin swipe fee + ACH fee),” Aude says.”The app didn’t mention a fee to send, so it’s probably free, at least initially. Over time they might add a $US1 fee.”

Aude says he believes the feature might be rolled out in the next few months. He also found another note in the code that indicates the feature will initially only allow one-to-one transactions. “In the short term, we will only support single payment attachment,” reads the note in the system discovered by Aude. “Multiple payment attachments will be supported in the future.”

“It’s clear now that there are things we should have done differently. For example, we should have considered other non-experimental ways to do this research,” wrote Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer. “The research would have also benefited from more extensive review by a wider and more senior group of people. Last, in releasing the study, we failed to communicate clearly why and how we did it.”