New Partnership Aims to Expand Mobile Payments in Europe

Telefonica Digital and Visa Europe announced a new partnership today aimed at increasing opportunities for the two partners in mobile commerce activities. The two companies said that they will invest together in developing new initiatives such as such as mobile wallets, NFC payments technology and merchant products for conducting mobile point of sale transactions.

Telefonica Digital is the digital services arm of telecommunications provider Telefonica. Visa Europe and Telefoncia have previously partnered in the U.K. and Ireland. The partnership extends their mutual efforts across the whole of Europe in developing mobile payment services and issuing branded payments cards.

"Visa has been an important partner for a number of years in Europe, helping us to trial, test and ultimately launch mobile payments products," Joaquin Mata, Telefonica Digital's director of Financial Services, said in a statement. "This market has enormous untapped potential and through this partnership with Visa Europe we aim to unlock significant new business opportunities."

Mobile wallets seism to be a key focus in the partnership. Telefonica has previously launched a mobile wallet for customers in the U.K., and the company said in a statement announcing the new partnership with Visa Europe that it intends to expand its mobile wallet to its other businesses and European markets as well.

"This partnership will deliver mainstream, commercial mobile payments on an international level," said Mariano Dima, Visa Europe's executive vice president of Product and Marketing Solutions.

[See Related: Visa Rolls Out New Suite of Mobile Products for U.S. Financial Institutions]

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio