By: Ken Chase.
New Twitter owner Elon Musk told employees on Thursday of his plans to incorporate banking features into the Twitter platform, essentially turning the social media platform into what he called “the people’s financial institution.” According to Musk, features could include a high-yield money market account, checks and debit cards, and even loans.
Musk’s comments were delivered in a call with employees that covered topics ranging from bots and content creator reimbursement to his demand that employees return to work on-site. During his remarks, he seemed to confirm that Twitter has already applied for the money transfer licenses it would need to implement some of the features he envisions.
The Verge apparently obtained a recording of the call and provided a transcript of the actual meeting, much of which involved a question and answer session with employees. According to that transcript, Musk offered a broad outline of what the “people’s financial institution” might look like.
Musk suggested that the social media platform would begin by populating a balance “for every verified Twitter user.” That would be done by providing each of those users with an initial balance that could be transferred by them to other users in the system. In addition, he envisions the creation of a money market account that would make having an account on Twitter the “highest-yield thing” that users could do:
“This is very complex and expensive. If you can simply have one balance on Twitter that can simply go positive or negative, and when it goes positive, the interest rate is better than what you could receive elsewhere, and when it goes negative, the interest rate is lower than what you see elsewhere, now you have a much simpler system.”
Musk confirmed that loans would be part of the plan, describing lending as a key element of any comprehensive financial service. He also equated sending financial payments to delivering direct messages.
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