John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 11.11.2022 03:Nov AM EST

Elon Musk Reveals More Details on Possible Banking Services via Twitter

Twitter could become something like a bank instead of staying as a microblogging platform in the future.

The Big Twit himself, Elon Musk, revealed more details regarding his plan to offer banking services on Twitter in his recent meeting with Twitter employees.

This idea may have come due to the financial pressure the company is facing after advertisers' mass exodus following boycotts on Twitter's sham content moderation and layoffs.

Twitter Banking Services Details

Musk mentioned in the meeting that he believes there is a "transformative opportunity" in payments, which could be done similarly to an exchange of information, per The Verge's sources.

Additionally, users can use a direct messaging stack for payments, and that in principle, it could enable Twitter to be used as a platform to send money anywhere in the world instantly and in real-time.

As for the interest rates connected to Twitter's future banking services, Musk said that it could go better than what can be seen elsewhere if a user's balance is positive. If their balance is negative, however, the interest rate is lower than what can be seen in banks and other digital wallets, providing a much simpler system.

Furthermore, attaching a debit card to Twitter's banking service could be possible to give Twitter users backward compatibility with Twitter's banking service and payments system, as not everyone will accept Twitter's services.

As such, if a user has a balance of a certain amount, they can automatically send people a debit card - an ambitious idea already.

What's even more ambitious is the fact that Musk wants Twitter's banking service to offer checks to capitalize on the fact that checks are not as widely used in the US.

According to Musk's idea, Twitter's banking service can provide its users with a small number of checks on-demand for those that need them.

Musk also envisions that Twitter's possible banking service will also have an automatic payment feature and that Twitter will be "the people's financial institution" given all the previously mentioned features.

Outlandish Or Genius?

Musk's idea of adding a banking service to Twitter isn't entirely far-fetched - in fact, it has precedence. You may remember that Meta previously launched a feature on Facebook's Messenger that enables its users to send and receive money through Meta Pay.

Meta also included this feature in its other apps, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Another thing to consider is Musk's experience with financial technology. Believe it or not, Musk previously owned PayPal when it was known as X.com, which he co-founded in 1999.

As such, it isn't weird for Musk to consider going this route if he gets his way with Twitter. According to the Financial Times, he could be turning Twitter into the Western counterpart of China's WeChat, which allows users to send and receive messages and payments as well as shop within the app.

However, this move could put Musk and Twitter into a slew of new regulatory challenges.