According to a report this week from the Wall Street Journal, Facebook
The social media giant hopes to access this data to expand its user services to encompass finances. Facebook denies that it is "actively asking financial services companies for financial transaction data." Facebook instead said it only wants to form partnerships with credit card companies and banks to offer customer service through its Messenger app and let users manage their accounts through Facebook. Integrating with banks in this fashion will let users "keep track of their transaction data like account balances, receipts, and shipping updates," Facebook says. Facebook has also denied that any the data it acquires will be used for personalized ad targeting.
In fact, Facebook already has such partnerships with American Express
But some banks are reluctant to partner with Facebook, particularly after the recent Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal, which affected 87 million of Facebook's users. Banks worry that Facebook would not be secure place for sensitive financial information. Indeed, one potential partner, Bank of America
With Facebook recently reporting the slowest growth in a quarter since 2011, these partnerships may prove important to staying relevant and ahead of the competition. Indeed, Facebook's stock price jumped 3.5% after WSJ's report, though some experts think the importance of the move to Facebook's future has been overrated even if it ultimately yields successful partnerships. It's unclear if Facebook can overcome its current reputation for lax security.