As Visa opens a new technology development center in Bangalore, India, which the company says will play a central role in the its efforts to accelerate digital commerce globally, it is also testing mVisa, a new payment service.
The new payment service allows consumers to make cardless purchases, pay bills and send money to friends and family members. It will be tested this summer with merchants across the Bangalore region and with customers of Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI (State Bank of India).
Visa says it will bring “the benefits of secure digital commerce to financial institutions, merchants and consumers in emerging markets”.
Consumers will first have to download the mVisa application to their smartphone and securely link their Visa debit, credit or prepaid account to the mVisa application.
Once activated, mVisa enables consumers to pay for purchases in stores and online by initiating a transfer of funds from their account to the merchant’s account. mVisa users will also be able to pay bills and send funds to other Visa account holders.
mVisa transactions are processed via Visa’s global network, VisaNet.
Starting in September, mVisa will be available to 20,000 merchants in the greater Bangalore region.
“Today, as commerce shifts to digital environments where consumers can make secure purchases using mobile devices, it is critical that we open up Visa’s network and make it easier for developers globally to access our payment platform – making secure Visa payments a standard feature of mobile applications,” said Rajat Taneja, EVP of technology at Visa Inc.
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