Facebook wants to be more than a social network — it is planning to facilitate financial services in the form of electronic money and remittances, the Financial Times reports (as spotted first by Benedict Evans). The report cites sources as saying that Facebook is weeks away from getting regulatory approval in Ireland for a service that lets users store money on Facebook and use it to pay others — what’s known as “e-money”. This means that Facebook will be able to issue units of stored monetary value that represent a claim against the company, and the e-money can be used throughout Europe in a process known as “passporting”. Facebook is also said to have had talks with at least three London startups offering international money transfer services online and via mobile: TransferWise, Moni Technologies and Azimo. A Facebook spokesperson tells TNW that it is “not commenting on rumor or speculation.”
Read the full story at The Next Web, and the original report at Financial Times (account required).