Visa and Vodafone form world’s largest mobile payment partnership

NFC Worldwide

The partnership is focused on developing a Vodafone branded mobile payment solution to be made available to its customer base of 398 million people, spanning over thirty countries in five continents (view press release). The Vodafone stored value account will be based on the Visa prepaid account and will enable encrypted NFC payments through Visa’s mobile payment technology, payWave for mobile. A loyalty scheme and gift voucher credits will also be available. Every day purchases such as bus or train tickets, newspapers, or a morning coffee can be made simply by waving the phone in front the reader. Higher value transaction will require a passcode for authentication.

The solution will be made available to all Visa issuers and partners in relevant industries, including financial institutions, retailers, transport and utility companies. The service will be launched in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the UK over the course of the next financial year. Other countries in Vodafone’s global portfolio will subsequently follow.   

Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Executive officer at Vodafone describes the solution as “the next stage of the smartphone revolution. It offers our customers the ability to manage everyday transactions with a single wave or tap of their smartphone, using technology and providers they can trust. Our mobile wallet will be open to any service provider and we are committed to enable all partners to provide our joint customers the richest service portfolio possible.”

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