Vodafone and Visa today announced a worldwide partnership to enable consumers to pay for goods and services using their mobile phones. The companies will work together to develop a proposition that will be offered to consumers across five continents.

North Sydney, New South Wales -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/23/2012 --Peter Ayliffe, CEO of Visa Europe, said: "Our partnership with Vodafone represents a huge stride forward for mobile payments. Visa’s future of payments initiative is more than just a promise: these services are real, tangible and coming to the mainstream consumer market in the very near future. Any Visa Issuer across these key markets will be able to work with Visa and Vodafone to enable mobile payments for their customers, backed by all the security, trust and global acceptance the Visa brand represents."

“The convergence of global payment networks, such as VisaNet, with leading mobile telecommunication networks, such as Vodafone, has the potential to transform the way people pay and get paid the world over,” said John Partridge, President, Visa Inc. “Visa’s relationship with Vodafone will assist financial institutions in both developed and developing countries to offer Visa-quality payments to new and existing account holders.”

Vodafone mCommerce strategy

Today’s agreement forms part of Vodafone’s broader mobile commerce strategy to provide consumers with a comprehensive mobile-based alternative to the cash and cards within their wallets and purses. Vodafone’s platform will be open to all partners in the relevant industries. Vodafone is in discussions with a large number of service providers - including banks, retailers, transport and utility companies, event organisers, smartphone application developers and advertisers - to host a broad range of services within an innovative new Vodafone “virtual” mobile wallet.

The Vodafone mobile wallet will use NFC technology to send encrypted data over short distances to enable secure transactions, with customer protection assured by the use of the latest secure SIM card and payments industry technology. In addition to stored value accounts, it will also hold loyalty scheme points and gift voucher credits, complementing and sometimes replacing a whole class of plastic cards in the customer's wallet or purse.

All Vodafone mobile wallet services - including the service announced with Visa today - will be compatible with standards currently being ratified by the global mobile industry body, the GSM Association.