The Commonwealth Bank's Facebook-based Kaching platform, which will allow customers to make payments to their Facebook friends without ever leaving the social network, should be available in January. Kaching, which was launched for the iPhone a year ago, has been downloaded by 700,000 customers, according to Andy Lark, chief marketing and online officer. He said that already six per cent of payments made using the Kaching application are to customers' Facebook friends.With the January release, the bank will allow Kaching users to access account information, make payments, request payments, or make financial gifts to any of their Facebook friends from inside Facebook itself. If those friends are also Kaching users a payment can complete automatically - and, if not, the recipient will be provided with a Netcode password to complete the payments loop.Lark claimed $3 billion worth of payments had already been made via the Kaching app on iPhone and Android phones. He said that the bank had also re-engineered the Android version of the app, and that this would be released prior to Christmas. However, at this stage, there are no plans to offer a Near Field Communications contactless payment capability for Android users.Customers with an iPhone and Kaching are able to buy an NFC case for their phone that allows it to be used to make contactless payments at the 120,000 PayWave or PayPass point-of-sale terminals around Australia. An NFC case for the iPhone 5 is now under development, according to Lark.Besides these consumer-facing services, the bank yesterday foreshadowed two new business innovations slated for release in 2013:• SmartSign - this will allow loan documents to be completed online, without the need for paperwork. Users will sign up for the service and will also have a voiceprint captured - CBA's first foray into biometrics. This can be used for additional authentication, and as evidence should a dispute arise.• CommBiz Mobile - this application will allow business customers to access their accounts from iPhones and iPads, and will be released in early 2013.