French Tweets To Now Send Money

France can now lay claim to an early social media person-to-person money transfer achievement, as French Twitter users can now Tweet cash to followers. A division of Groupe BPCS (France’s second-largest banking group) called S-money partnered with Twitter to make the move for anyone with a French Twitter account and a BPCE bank account.

“This initiative is a good example of our innovation strategy regarding payments. Groupe BPCE is the first banking group to offer individuals a payments solution where they can transfer money with a simple tweet,” said Jean-Yves Forel, Groupe BPCE chief executive in charge of commercial banking and insurance.

The Financial Times reported that Twitter “did not say whether the transaction would be kept private, or visible to people you know, as many are on the PayPal-owned app Venmo. Traditional banks and other financial services companies are facing competition from technology companies in areas which stretch from money transfer to peer-to-peer lending with start-ups such as Lending Club and Prosper. Social networks in particular could prove to be a way of identifying people when they conduct transactions online.”