Facebook Inc. wants your financial data. 
 
 The social-media giant has asked large U.S. banks to share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and checking-account balances, as part of an effort to offer new services to users. 
 
 Facebook increasingly wants to be a platform where people buy and sell goods... ||||| Further Reading Facebook stock dives nearly 20% on warning of slow revenue growth Facebook is pushing back against a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal that the company is asking major banks to provide private financial data. 
 
 The social media giant has reportedly had talks with JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and US Bancorp to discuss proposed features including fraud alerts and checking account balances via Messenger. 
 
 Elisabeth Diana, a Facebook spokeswoman, told Ars that while the WSJ reported that Facebook has "asked" banks "to share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and checking-account balances," this isn't quite right. 
 
 "Like many online companies with commerce businesses, we partner with banks and credit card companies to offer services like customer chat or account management," she said in a statement on behalf of the social media giant. "Account linking enables people to receive real-time updates in Facebook Messenger where people can keep track of their transaction data like account balances, receipts, and shipping updates. The idea is that messaging with a bank can be better than waiting on hold over the phone—and it's completely opt-in. We're not using this information beyond enabling these types of experiences—not for advertising or anything else." 
 
 Diana further explained that account linking is already live with PayPal, Citi in Singapore, and American Express in the United States. 
 
 "We're not shoring up financial data," she added. 
 
 In recent months, Facebook has been scrutinized for its approach to user privacy. 
 
 Late last month, Facebook CFO David Wehner said, "We are also giving people who use our services more choices around data privacy, which may have an impact on our revenue growth."
– A report out Monday in the Wall Street Journal claims Facebook has asked some of America's largest financial institutions to share their customers' private financial data. The social giant reportedly wants data as specific as checking account balances and individual transaction information, which would be used as part of a bid to expand their own services by offering banks ways to access users (and give users access to banking) via Facebook Messenger. Facebook has pitched the idea to JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and US Bancorp, per the report. While reactions on social media to the WSJ were often critical of the report, especially from people already concerned about Facebook's handling of its own private user data, the company was quick to issue a rebuttal. "A recent WSJ story implies incorrectly that we are actively asking financial services companies for financial transaction data—this is not true,” Facebook said in statement. The statement, obtained by Ars Technica, went on to portray it as common practice for all companies with commerce business to "partner with banks and credit card companies to offer services like customer chat or account management."