FinCEN greenlight will allow Twitter to facilitate money transfers. Credit: PhotoMIX-Company from Pixabay.

Social media platform Twitter has filed registration paperwork with the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to provide payments processing services to its users, The New York Times reported.

A greenlight from the FinCEN will allow Twitter to facilitate money transfers, exchange currency or cash checks, among others.

The development comes as the platform’s new CEO Elon Musk is embarking on an endeavour to find new sources of income that can bring profits to the company.

Musk took control of Twitter in a $44bn deal last month.

In a recent livestreamed meeting with Twitter advertisers, Musk outlined many of his plans, including initiatives to foray into the payments sector.

He talked about a vision for the platform to process payments with capability to link debit cards and bank accounts of the users.

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Musk, who previously helped establish digital payments firm PayPal, said that his vision for Twitter also includes allowing users to connect online bank accounts to the social media platform.

In addition, he stated that users will be able to send money to others on Twitter in the future.

They will also be able to withdraw their funds to verified bank accounts. The users may be able to gain access to a high-throughput money market account to promote cash flow to Twitter.

Musk added: “And then add debit cards, checks and whatnot and…just basically make the system as useful as possible.

“And the more useful and entertaining it is, the more people will use it.”

The business tycoon ultimately wishes to make Twitter an ‘everything app’ in line with Chinese social media platform WeChat.

Users of WeChat can receive news, book cabs and order food through the platform.