electronic payments network,⁽¹⁾ today announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Monitise plc to facilitate the delivery of Visa mobile payments and related services to consumers around the world. Concurrent with the strategic alliance, Visa has agreed to make a minority equity investment in Monitise, subject to Monitise shareholder approval. Monitise is a recognized expert in mobile financial services that operates payments and mobile banking services for some of world's leading financial institutions.

The alliance provides Visa with a strategic development partner for its comprehensive suite of mobile services, including mobile payments, mobile money transfer, mobile transaction alerts and mobile marketing offers. Monitise delivers unique expertise that facilitates customized development of mobile financial services for a broad range of handsets that exist in the marketplace, ensuring an optimized user experience. Through detection of phone make, model, screen size, browser type and multimedia capabilities, Monitise can optimize the user experience for Visa mobile payments and related services. The two companies will work together to increase speed to market of unique payment and related services including mobile user enrollment services, application development and channel management.

"With the ever expanding growth in handsets, coupled with increasing sophistication of mobile networks, mobile payments and services present a significant growth 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 Tim Attinger , Global Head of Product Development at Visa Inc. "In aligning with Monitise, we expect to expand the delivery of Visa mobile services to consumers around the globe, enabling them to use their mobile phones seamlessly to purchase goods and services, make payments, receive valuable information and offers, and transfer money between accounts, in a safe and secure manner."

Monitise is a leader in mobile financial services, bringing together leading financial institutions, mobile operators and consumers through mobile devices. Monitise's experience in developing and operating mobile platforms for financial institutions makes them an ideal partner for advancing Visa's mobile strategy.

"Visa is the world's leading, innovative payments system," said Alastair Lukies, Chief Executive, Monitise plc. "This alliance validates our unwavering commitment to building truly accessible, inclusive and reliable services. 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. We are also delighted to add Tim Attinger to our advisory board; his deep payments and mobile expertise will make him a valued contributor to our strategic decision making body."

Over the last two years, Visa has worked closely with critical mobile industry stakeholders, including network operators, handset manufacturers, technology providers and industry groups to integrate the benefits of Visa electronic payments with mobile technology. This alliance further reflects Visa's progress through partnership philosophy, and supports Visa's mobile strategy to deliver the benefits of electronic payment products and services through the more than 4 billion mobile devices in use around the world.

As part of its strategic alliance with Monitise, Visa has agreed to make a minority equity investment in Monitise, subject to Monitise shareholder approval and the satisfaction of certain other conditions.

⁽¹⁾ Based on payments volume, total volume, number of transactions and total number of cards in circulation.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network providing processing services and payment product platforms. This includes consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, which are offered under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world, and Visa/PLUS is one of the world's largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in more than 170 countries.

Information Source:    PRNewswire-FirstCall