Facebook has introduced new enhancements to its payments service designed to improve its functionality.

The social network has offered a person-to-person payments service within its Messenger app for nearly two years, the Drum reports.

However, it has until now lacked a feature that enables financial transactions involving more than two people to be resolved easily.

With the added functionality, each participant in a chat log can either contribute a select sum, or bills can be divided equally between all those taking part in a conversation.

Commenting on the changes, product manager for consumer payments Partha Sundaram said: "It's simple, fast and secure.

"Whether you're splitting a restaurant bill or chipping in for a group gift, all you need to do is go to a new or existing Messenger group to get started."

Users can activate the payments service simply by clicking on the dollar logo included in the app.