Visa signs $13 million deal with Monitise

With mobile payments set to grow exponentially, mobile banking specialist Monitise has struck a five-year partnership with Visa worth some $13 million.

As part of the deal, Monitise will work with Visa International in a strategic development capacity, with the aim of supporting the payment giant’s aims of ensuring its services reach a larger share of the four billion mobile devices on the planet.

“With the ever expanding growth in handsets coupled with increasing sophistication of mobile networks, mobile payments and services present significant opportunity for Visa as we continue to develop new ways to bring the benefits of Visa electronic payments to more people in more places,” said Visa’s head of global product innovation, Tim Attinger, in a statement.

Attinger, who will now sit on Monitise’s advisory board, added: “In aligning with Monitise, we expect to expand the delivery of Visa mobile services to consumers around the globe, enabling them to seamlessly use their mobile phones to purchase goods and services, make payments, receive valuable information and offers, and transfer money between accounts, in a safe and secure manner.”

In the same announcement, Monitise also confirmed that Visa International would gain control of 14.4 per of the company’s shares while existing investors, UBS Global and Capital Group, will now up their involvement to take control of 12.9 per cent and 5.8 per cent of the available share base respectively.

"Visa is the world’s most trusted, inclusive and innovative payments network. This alliance validates our unwavering commitment to building truly accessible, inclusive and reliable services over the past seven years,” said Alastair Lukies, Monitise’s chief executive in a statement.

“It is a landmark announcement in the mobile payment space and we are excited to collaborate with the world’s foremost payments company to accelerate the convergence of payments services and mobile devices.”

Just last month, analyst Gartner predicted that mobile payments will grow by 70 per cent this year, with numbers jumping to as high as 190 million by 2012.

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