Visa invests in m-payments platform

Financial services provider Visa Europe has invested £24.7m in mobile payments platform Monitise, giving the latter a greater European presence. Monitise is also consolidating its position in the US by buying out its partner in its US operation.

The acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Monitise Americas, currently held by Metavante Corporation, a subsidiary of Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), will result in Metavante being issued with a 3.3 per cent stake in parent company Monitise plc.

Following the Visa Europe investment and the issue of shares to FIS, Visa Europe’s and FIS’s respective shareholdings in Monitise will be 8.8 per cent and 3.3 per cent. Visa Europe president and chief executive Peter Ayliffe, will join Monitise’s board of directors.

Ayliffe said of the investment, that the growth of mobile phone services and e-commerce, together with the evolution of the mobile handset into the smartphone, present two of the most significant opportunities for the payments technology industry. “We have made a significant investment in Monitise, our mobile payment technology strategic partner, as a demonstration of our belief in the crucial role that mobile has to play in the further development of the payments industry and also of our commitment to delivering the future of payments across Europe.”

Ayliffe said that mobile payments are one of the key pillars of Visa’s future strategy, adding that “We are already investing extensively in NFC, embedding the Visa mobile payment application into the SIM and core chip set in the mobile handset, as well as introducing bridging technologies like the iCarte application, recognising that it will take time for all mobile handsets to have NFC embedded within them.”

In September, Visa Europe announced the launch of Visa Mobile Person-to-Person payments and Visa Alerts, two services designed to help consumers manage their money and make payments using their mobile phones. Monitise was involved in both initiatives.