In maneuvers that could boost the future outlook of mobile banking and payments, Monitise PLC has received an investment from partner Visa Europe and has strengthened its U.S. operations by acquiring Monitise Americas shares owned by bank technology provider Fidelity National Information Services Inc., or FIS, the London-based mobile payments provider announced Oct. 31.
The £24.7 million (US$39.8 million or 28.1 million euros) investment from Visa Europe strengthens the partnership Monitise created in February with the payments provider, which is owned and operated by more than 4,000 European member banks (
In addition, Monitise agreed to pay $15 million to acquire the 51% stake in its Monitise Americas operation held by Metavante Corp., a subsidiary of Jacksonville, Fla.-based FIS, the company stated in a press release. As part of the acquisition, Monitise will issue Metavante a 3.3% stake in Monitise PLC, with completion of the deal conditional on company shares being admitted to trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, the company stated.
“Visa Europe’s investment in Monitise, coupled with a deepening relationship eight months after our two companies first entered into a partnership, establishes our role as the platform of choice for mobile money services in Europe,” Alastair Lukies, Monitise group chief executive, said in the release.
Industry analysts believe Monitise and Visa Europe are hedging their bets with those who say mobile banking and payments soon will be commonplace.
Mobile banking and payments becoming mainstream is not a question of “if” but more a question of “when,” based on the Visa Europe and Monitise investments, Gareth Lodge, a London-based industry analyst with Celent, tells PaymentsSource.
“There is a land grab taking place [in the mobile-pay market], and this is a huge game-changing opportunity that everyone wants a part of,” Lodge says.
Visa Europe wants to ensure the back end of any mobile payment system at least uses its Visa card rails, though consumers have not established a clear winner among the companies providing mobile payment and banking, Lodge suggests.
“There are still plenty of players, but not necessarily any dominant player,” Lodge adds.
With Visa Inc., an independent and separate company from Visa Europe, in June purchasing Fundamo, a privately held mobile financial services provider, to help it enter into emerging markets, Lodge expects to see more consolidation and maneuvering taking place in the mobile-payment market (
Zil Bareisis, also a London-based senior analyst for research firm Celent, says the Visa Europe investment “signals a further strengthening of its commitment to mobile financial services.”
The partnership with Monitise, which provides a proven technology for mobile banking, makes sense for Visa Europe because it is an association owned by member banks focused on developing services for those banks, Bareisis tells PaymentsSource.
What do you think about this? Send us your feedback.
