MENLO PARK, Calif.—Facebook is pulling away from its plans to provide peer-to-peer money transfers via Messenger in Europe, according to a new report.
The company announced it would be discontinuing the service in the two countries in the region where it had rolled it out, the U.K. and France, on June 15.
“It appears that for now, the service will remain active in the U.S., where Facebook holds a number of money transmitter licenses,” Tech Crunch reported. “It’s not shutting down payments altogether in Europe; it will continue to let people make charitable donations through Facebook itself.”
“On 15 June 2019, we will discontinue P2P services on Messenger or through Facebook messages for all residents in the U.K. and France,” the company noted in a statement on its main help page for the payments service. “While you won’t be able to exchange money with friends and family, you’ll still be able to complete other transactions through Facebook, such as making donations to charitable organizations.”
Preparation for Change
Tech Crunch noted that in a statement Facebook provided to the news outlet, the company suggested the service was highly used.
“After evaluating how we give people the best experiences in Messenger, we made the decision to focus our efforts on experiences that people find most useful. Users have been notified in preparation for this change,” Facebook said.