Facebook may in the future be doing for your banking what it’s done for your online privacy in general. Who doesn’t want to be able to pay their bills while at the same time looking at photos of their friends at that braai that got a little out of hand?

The social media giant has been quietly supporting new services for the socialisation of banking – a service which at its very essence is something rather private. An internal beta is currently running with Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, which in theory will allow the user to make payments to third parties as well as their friends on the network. Transactions will be secured with the bank’s own authentication system, similar to payments made online through its own site.

This of course opens up a whole network of fraud possibles, like receiving a scam mail from a “friend in trouble,” looking for a couple bucks from you to help him out. Overcoming such obstacles are likely to be the biggest hurdles in launching such a service.

From a company that’s core mission is connecting the world and allowing people to share their lives, could this project perhaps be a little ambitious? Only time will tell.

[Source: CNN]