M-banking: Visa Granted Exclusive Monitise Licence
- Visa Europe strengthens its strategic partnership with Monitise. In 2009, Visa acquired a 14% stake in the mobile financial services specialist. This second, more specific, agreement with the former VocaLink subsidiary now provides Visa with an exclusive mobile banking licence in Europe.
- Visa Europe members will be proposed contactless mobile payment solutions as well as P2P payments services and an alert system. This offer will soon be further deepened with account, customer loyalty, and mobile payment applications management (in e-commerce).
- They will be distributed on Visa Europe’s recently completed interbank processing network platform, which has cost half a billion Euros.
- Even though it is independent from its parent company Visa Inc, Visa Europe follows a likewise quickened diversification strategy through external growth. While still focusing on payments, Visa aggregates innovative offers in this field. The aim is to remain as attractive as possible to its main and historical customers, the financial institutions.
- This positioning slightly differs from MasterCard’s. Generally considered more innovative and commercially aggressive, the rival is also more actively proposing non-bank institutions to join in.