Visa m-wallet to launch in autumn

Financial services firm Visa Europe has said it will launch the V.me digital wallet on a controlled basis in the UK, France and Spain in the autumn of 2012.

The service will be made available through Visa’s member banks and will initially be accessed through the web browser on a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. The wallet will ultimately act as a container for multiple payment technologies, including virtual credit cards. Consumers will be able to put multiple cards into the wallet as well as technologies to make payments face-to-face, online or in a mobile environment.

Payments processor WorldPay has also been signed up as a key development partner in the delivery of the V.me service in the UK, to provide commercial and propositional insights to meet retailer needs and expectations.

Mariano Dima, executive VP of product and marketing solutions at Visa Europe, said: “V.me sits at the heart of Visa’s future of payments. For the first time, consumers and retailers will have a streamlined online checkout experience through an acceptance mark that offers industry-leading security and, when a Visa card is used in a V.me wallet, the same protection and rights that come with any Visa card transaction.

E-commerce currently represents 22 per cent of Visa Europe’s transactions and grew 44 per cent between 2009 and 2011.

Telecoms.com recently interviewed Visa’s global head of mobile, Bill Gajda, who spoke about how the mobile industry is looking to use the existing global, scalable, interoperable, secure rails that Visa, Mastercard and a few other companies supply, to extend the reach of mobile financial services.

Last week UK operator O2 launched its own mobile wallet offering.