First Direct has launched fdpay, a new service letting customers make peer-to-peer payments within social media apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Technology from FinTech firm PayKey lets users tap a payment icon within a conversation and manage a payment without having to open the banking app or login.

Joe Gordon, head of First Direct, said: “We’re always listening to what customers say they want in order to give them the best service we can, and they told us it would be great if they were able to pay a contact within an already open conversation.”

The new service is available within the bank’s mobile app and can be enabled from the phone’s keyboard settings in just a few steps. It can be used within any messaging app that uses the phone’s keyboard and payments up to £350 a day can be made.

On pressing the fd button, customers are securely authenticated via the app and are able to make a payment. The service uses the UK banking industry’s Paym service, where no account details are required to make the payment, just the beneficiary’s mobile phone number.

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