Twitter’s filing with FINCEN (the US Department of Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), has surfaced in the agency’s database. According to the filing, Twitter Payments, LLC has filed to become a Money Transmitter in all 50 states and territories. Twitter Payments joins over 25,000 Money Services Business (MSB). An MSB must comply with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and adhere to KYC and AML rules.
A money transmitter is anyone who engages as “a business in accepting currency, or funds denominated in currency, and transmits the currency or funds, or the value of the currency or funds, by any means through a financial agency or institution… or… any other person engaged as a business in the transfer of funds.”
In a Twitter spaces session, CEO Elon Musk outlined his vision of enabling Twitter users to make payments and transfers, somewhat similar to his first big hit – PayPal or perhaps more in line with Chinese Fintechs/Social Media platforms WeChat, part of Tencent. The Chinese firm WeChat Pay currently serves hundreds of millions of customers, according to its website.
As the world knows, Musk is on a mission to restore free speech on Twitter while turning it into a profitable venture after he took the firm private. Musk has been Tweeting regularly, recently revealing that Twitter has hit an all-time high of active users. A recent report indicated that Twitter had over 230 million users – a usage base that Musk aims to monetize more effectively – including with payments (and more).