Twitter and Groupe BPCE, France’s second-largest bank, are teaming up to enable Twitter’s users to complete person-to-person money transfers using tweets. Payments on the service will be open to anyone in the country, not just Groupe BPCE users, and won’t require senders to know the recipient’s banking details to initiate a transaction. The payments will be managed by S-Money, Groupe BPCE’s mobile money unit.

The development comes amid a wave of new offerings from digital and internet-based payments providers, both newcomers and veterans. In 2012, Western Union experienced a 41 percent increase in online transactions. Venmo, the PayPal-owned smartphone app that integrates users’ social info, reached a transaction volume of US$ 468 million in the second quarter of this year, a 347 percent increase over last year’s Q2 figure. Last month, with a portion of users in the United States, Twitter also began testing its potential to be a retail marketplace with Twitter Buy. The platform update integrates a “buy button” into the tweets of companies selling products or services, harnessing the Twitter stream of tweets as an avenue for online window shopping.

Twitter’s top five countries for most users per capita are Kuwait, the Netherlands, Brunei, the U.K., and the U.S. (longer list here). GSMA estimates that global smartphone penetration per population will increase from 2012’s rate of 19 percent to 32 percent in 2017. In sub-Saharan Africa over the same period, the rate is anticipated to increase from 4 to 20 percent, giving many more people access to Twitter.

Further details on the Twitter/Groupe BPCE service will be unveiled at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday, October 14.

Have you read?

Facebook to Provide Remittances? The News and the Bigger Picture

‘Mobile Money Sprinters’ Adapt to Local Conditions in Pakistan, Somaliland, and Zimbabwe

Selling Sheep on Instagram and Sending Virtual Gifts to Karaoke Singers in the New Mobile Internet Economy

The following post by Natalie Zuniga was originally published on the Ashoka Changemakers’ blog with the title “Join @Changemakers and @G20Mexico on October 9th for a #SocEntChat about Global Financial Inclusion.” 

On October 9, 2012 from 11am to 1pm EST, Ashoka Changemakers will host a multilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) #SocEntChatabout promising solutions to achieve full financial inclusion. Experts and social entrepreneurs working in the field will convene and answer your questions during a Twitter-based discussion. Special guests Center for Financial Inclusion (@CFI_ACCION) and FINO (@Jatinhandoo) will join the conversation.

This #SocEntChat follows the closing of the entry period for the G2012 Mexico Financial Inclusion competition, which received 257 entries from 62 countries. Visit the competition page to check out solutions from around the world and to give social entrepreneurs your feedback.

Have you observed key barriers within the financial inclusion ecosystem? What can private institutions, NGOs, and the public sector do to open up access to affordable, quality financial services for all? Do you have experience with thriving citizen-based financial inclusion initiatives? How can those be taken to scale?

This is your chance to make your voice heard, or ask thought leaders your most burning questions!

To read the rest of this post, which includes instructions on how to join Tuesday’s financial inclusion discussion, visit the Ashoka Changemakers’ blog. 

In addition to CFI participating in this Twitter chat, during the week of October 8 Changemakers will highlight CFI Managing Director Elisabeth Rhyne as its Speak Up thought leader for financial inclusion, and share a new blog post from Rhyne on money management among the poor and the movement to bank the unbanked.

Image Credit: Microfinance Opportunities/Ashoka Changemakers

Have you read?

Citi and IPA Invite Financial Capability Innovation

Community Banking through Peer Credit Scoring

Mobile Money Transfer – What Does it Mean for Financial Inclusion?