You can now use Facebook to send money to your friends

Facebook is to start letting users send money to friends via its Messenger mobile app.

The free service will be offered "in the coming months", according to a Facebook statement, and will put the social network in direct competition with services such as Square Cash and Venmo.

The money transfer system will use bank debit cards of users, and may take up to three days depending on the banks used, Facebook said.

Facebook already handles a considerable amount of payments through its platform for advertisers and for games on its network.

"Facebook processes more than 1m transactions daily on the site and also handles all the payments processed on Messenger," the statement said.

"We use secure systems that encrypt the connection between you and Facebook as well as your card information when you ask us to store it for you."

It was not immediately clear if Facebook would be able to generate revenue from peer-to-peer money transfers, but the feature could be the start of a more extensive payment network which could be profitable.

The messaging service Snapchat also offers a similar feature, in partnership with Square Cash.