Facebook reportedly asks major U.S. banks for customers' financial data

Facebook has reportedly approached several of the biggest U.S. banks, asking them to share their customers’ financial data with the social-media giant.

According to a report Monday in the Wall Street Journal, the data included such detailed matters as card transactions besides Facebook-related purchases and checking-account balances.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the Journal reported that over the past year Facebook has sought out JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp “to discuss potential offerings it could host for bank customers on Facebook Messenger.”

The talks, reflecting Facebook’s desire to be a site where people buy and sell goods in addition to chat with their friends and share cat videos, are being held up by the banks’ concerns about data privacy, partially a reflection of the selling of user data to Cambridge Analytica, the Journal reported.

Facebook maintains that if it gets the data from banks, it will use it to offer services that encourage people to spend more time on Messenger, and will not use it to target ads or share with third parties.

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