ING Direct Canada tends to be ahead of the curve on customer-facing technology — witness its pioneering BlackBerry 10 and Windows 8 apps released earlier this year. This week, the $40 billion-asset online bank revealed several new digital innovations, including one that lets its 1.8 million customers log in to their online banking account through Facebook, and another that allows customers to see certain account information from their mobile devices without logging in at all.

ING Direct is letting customers who opt in view account balances, history and pending transactions and receive real-time account alerts within Facebook, all in read-only mode. It plans to expand this application further to include transactions such as transfers, bill payments and email money transfers.

U.S. banks have not ventured to let customers bank through Facebook, due partly to concerns about the FFIEC’s proposed rules about banks’ use of social media and security questions.

More : ING Direct Forays into Facebook Banking, Biometric Security | Bank Investment Consultant.