Wednesday 5th June, 2013

To create anything new, you need the right mixture, the right environment. This is precisely the case with the current changes in payments and banking. The prolonged adverse economic background, coupled with a reluctance from traditional banking sources to lend - has led to an increase in innovation, sometimes from areas not directly previously associated with the financial sector.

Take Facebook for example. Not necessarily the first place which comes to mind when thinking of banking - but with the rise of key apps - that's unlikely to be the case for much longer. Instabank in Russia, CommBank in Australia and ICICI bank in India - have all seen the potential for side-stepping traditional routes and have tied apps to Facebook.

According to the companies' website, Instabank customers, for example can:

• Make a customised bank statement -  transactions – either online or offline – appear as instant notifications in the app’s activity stream
• Make payments to Facebook friends even if they’re not using Instabank (for free)
• Make payments wirelessly to nearby businesses
• Tag individual purchases with comments, a location via Foursquare or a photo

The app will also automatically sort expenses into categories, and provides overview charts, a goal-setting function and a keyword search function. Friends can be invited to help save towards goals or split costs. Facebook banking is the culmination of a merger of need, ability and most of all - the attraction and power that existis within an expanding network. With the distinction between B2B and B2C activity becoming increasingly blurred - many organisations, or at least their solution providers, are likely to take advantage of the new apps as useful ad ons to their existing payment platforms.