Visa to Roll Out Digital Wallet Service This Fall

Visa Inc. is working with several banks to roll out a digital wallet service in the U.S. and Canada this fall that will let consumers make payments with Visa and non-Visa cards.

The San Francisco payment network on Wednesday said U.S. Bancorp, BB&T Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Regions Financial Corp., Barclays PLC's Barclaycard US and others are among its partners.

The service would include a "click-to-buy" function that allows customers to make purchases by entering an email address, alias or online ID and password rather than entering a billing address, account number and card expiration date to speed up transactions at online and mobile websites. The service, which would support near-field communication or NFC payment technology, could also be used to conduct transactions in brick-and-mortar merchants and receive coupons and other offers.

"The widespread adoption of Internet and mobile technology is changing the way people connect and transact across the globe, so we're focused on delivering locally-tailored payments products and services," Joseph Saunders, Visa's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a press release.

Visa also said it would work with financial institutions and wireless network operators in emerging markets on services for transferring and receiving money, adding wireless minutes and other features using mobile devices.

Visa and other card networks are jockeying for the leadership position in the emerging field of mobile payments, which is also being targeted by wireless carriers like AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless and a slew of non-bank companies including eBay Inc.'s PayPal subsidiary and Google Inc.

The volume of mobile payments is expected to account for $214 billion by 2015, up from $16 billion in 2010, according to a November report from the Aite Group research firm.

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