Visa Europe plans to acquire a 15% minority stake in mobile retail payments provider Mobile Money Network Ltd., the European payment system provider announced March 7.
Visa Europe executives indicate the investment supports the organization's mobile payments delivery strategy.
"We are working with partners and organizations across the mobile ecosystem to make the future of payments a reality for consumers, for retailers and for financial institutions," Peter Ayliffe, Visa Europe chief executive, stated in a press release.
By 2020, consumers will initiate more than half of all of Visa transactions in Europe with a mobile device, Ayliffe added.
Visa Europe and Mobile Money Network will implement a number of mobile-commerce initiatives in the United Kingdom in 2012, taking the network's bank-grade, interoperable infrastructure for secure, fast and simple mobile shopping to the mass market, the press release stated.
Mobile Money Network operates Simply Tap, its instant mobile checkout software, which allows customers to identify and purchase a product on mobile devices.
London-based mobile payment technology provider Monitise PLC supports the Mobile Money Network system, Visa Europe stated.
Mobile Money Network launched Simply Tap in November, touting an application that shoppers could use wherever they saw a product-in print, on outdoor advertising, in stores or online, allowing users to make purchases by typing product codes into their phones.
Merchants deliver products to the home addresses of consumers using Simply Tap (
As part of the new agreement, the Simply Tap application also will provide new offers and savings coupons available only to Visa cardholders, the release noted.
The press release did not indicate when the Visa Europe investment officially would occur.
