While many banks have financial calculators on their own web sites, reinventing one for Facebook could represent a fundamental change in the way consumers interact and conduct transactions, says Stephen Applebaum, a senior analyst at Aite Group.
"I do think it's actually disruptive technology in the technical sense in that it allows vendors in banking or insurance companies or credit unions to link the growing number of users of social media back to their web sites in a very simplistic way," he says.
Customers are responding because they use social media and also want to get loan information at any time, "even quickly in the middle of the night," says Applebaum.
"Nobody wants to go into a bank office and fill out a loan application," he says. "As each year goes by, and the number of consumers using social media swells, banks and others better get on board."
