Viber is the latest messaging firm to consider a mobile payment service, according to Marketwatch.

On 6 October, the firm filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the following phrase: “Sending Money Is As Easy As Saying Hello”.

And Viber dropped a pretty heavy hint in an email response to Marketwatch when asked about the potential move.

“Viber is constantly in the process of research and development and looking into potential new services for us. The area of mobile payments is certainly one that interests us and we’ll have more information in due course,” said Mark Hardy, the firm’s chief marketing officer.

Other messaging firms, including Daum Kakao and Facebook, have launched payment services, as an add-on to their basic functionality. Messaging services are considered particularly suited to P2P payments between friends and family members.