Visa forms alliances for move into mobile payments
Visa has acquired Fundamo and announced a partnership with Monitise to prepare its entry in the mobile payments sector.
The acquisition is aimed at accelerating Visa’s rollout of mobile financial services, such as peer-to-peer transfers and bill payments, in emerging markets where mobile penetration exceeds online banking services.
Visa’s acquisition of mobile financial services firm Fundamo has been made for an undisclosed fee.
Joseph W Saunders, CEO of Visa, said, “Delivering mobile financial services in developing economies presents us with a long-term opportunity to grow our business and drive financial inclusion in key geographic markets.”
The five-year alliance with Monitise is reported to be worth over $10m and is aimed at ramping up Visa’s mobile payments services in mature markets such as the US and UK.
Mobile operator O2 last month named Visa as one of its key partners to bring mobile financial services to the UK. It has applied for an e-money licence to launch mobile wallet services similar to Orange and Barclaycard’s Quick Tap Service.
This story first appeared on New Media Age. For more digital stories and analysis’ from NMA click here now
