ABN Amro Aims P-to-P Payments App at Instant Messenger Users

ABN Amro is using cross-platform mobile messaging app WhatsApp as a payment request channel for a new person-to-person payments app.

Tikkie, an ABN Amro app available to checking account customers of any bank, links users’ WhatsApp contacts list. When they request a payment through Tikkie, they select the sender from the list and Tikkie automatically creates a standard payment request message, in the WhatsApp messaging box, with a link to iDeal – a Dutch online payment service.

The model is similar to moves from Facebook, PayPal's Venmo and Snapchat to pair payments with social networks.  

"How often do you lend somebody money, but have a hard time - for whatever reason - asking to be repaid?” Frank Verkerk, chief digital officer at ABN Amro, said in a June 23 news release. “Nothing could be easier than sending a WhatsApp message with an iDeal payment request."

Funds transferred over iDeal are automatically credited to the customer's current account.