Australia's Commonwealth Bank has launched social banking app, CommBank Kaching for Facebook. New updates to Kaching for smartphones have also been announced, improving functionality and user reviews across iOS and Android platforms.

“With Facebook popularity skyrocketing to more than 55 per cent of the population in Australia, we know our customers, particularly Facebook’s core user base of 18-35 year olds, are looking for new ways to connect their banking and their lives, friends and causes inside Facebook. So what better way than by giving them access to everyday banking and payments on their favourite social network,” says Andy Lark, Commonwealth Bank’s chief marketing and online officer.

In addition to enabling users to make payments to Facebook friends or anyone with a mobile number or email address, the app has a number of payment options. These include the ability to make payments to Facebook Events, and gift payments to friends and family on Facebook for special occasions such as birthdays. A new payment request functionality also allows users to post payment requests for anything from joint birthday presents to holidays, on their friends’ timeline or via private message. Other functionalities include the ability to view an account balance and transaction history, transferring funds between accounts and viewing peer-to-peer payment and requests history.

A PIN and NetCode SMS sit behind payments to third parties, while Commonwealth Bank offers a 100 per cent security guarantee on all transactions. “We know peer-to-peer payments are already becoming mainstream, with more than $416 million P2P payments already recorded via CommBank Kaching. As social banking starts to take off, we believe more of our customers will embrace a range of payment options, including Facebook event payments, as they start to integrate their everyday banking needs within their social networks," says Lark.

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