This week’s flurry of media coverage and announcements are testimony to a highly dynamic mobile payments eco-system and the value mobile payments are expected to drive to all stakeholders including consumers.
They are also validation of Visa’s approach to mobile payments — an open approach that provides consumers with choice and allows them to make mobile payments with whatever mobile device they choose using the trusted accounts they have.
Our approach has been chronicled in this blog as Visa has led the roll-out of a scalable solution here in the U.S. Taken individually, our flow of announcements show steady momentum toward making mobile payments a reality. But added together, you see a comprehensive strategy that we expect to fundamentally evolve the payment landscape in this country.
- Perhaps most importantly, Visa’s mobile program is operable today at thousands of locations across the U.S., anywhere Visa payWave is accepted. To see our program in action take a look at this video, which shows a program with the New York City subway. But – it’s also worth mentioning – you could just as easily walk to the major fast food restaurant across the street and buy a sandwich using just your mobile phone.
- Visa’s solution is commercially available today with broad roll-out to consumers expected in the second half of this year. Our program is scalable, easy to use and works within the existing payments ecosystem.
- Visa is already working with four of the largest U.S. banks — Bank of America, Chase, US Bank and Wells Fargo — to make mobile payments a reality in this country.
Final thought: If “mobile” is the word of the day, then second on that list is definitely “P2P.” For those of you who missed it, earlier this month Visa announced a major milestone in introducing a P2P solution that enables U.S. cardholders to receive and send funds to any eligible Visa credit, debit or prepaid account, anywhere in the world.
Posted by: Ryan Donovan, Corporate Relations on March 29, 2011 at 8:25 pm
