Visa is fully confident of playing a major role in the mobile payment landscape, despite competition from players such as Google Wallet.
Head of mobile Innovation Bill Gajda said at the GSMA Mobile Money Summit 2011 in Singapore that the company was seeing results from its push to promote the use of its Visa payWave application.
A key aspect of Visa’s strategy concerned the North American market, where Visa had tied-up with major banks such as the Bank of America and Wells Fargo for the promotion of mobile payments. Gajda said the company would continue to promote the use of its payWAVE application on as many handsets as possible.
Gajda added Visa’s SIM-based mobile payment JV with SK Telecom and Hana's HanaSK card was gaining traction – the initiative had garnered 100,000 sign-ups, netting $500,000 in monthly payments; he added the projected worldwide growth of NFC in various markets would help drive the company’s mobile wallet vision.
Visa remains focused on mobilizing existing Visa accounts, extending mobile banking to payments and enhancing the consumer payment experience while offering new transaction types, Gajda added.
Visa’s $110 million acquisition of South Africa-based mobile financial services platform provider Fundamo earlier this month was also discussed. Gajda said Visa intended to keep the Fundamo name and headquarters in Cape Town while expanding the company’s footprint in Singapore and Miami.
Gadja added Visa would support Fundamo’s existing client base. The acquisition was touted as Visa’s ticket to the emerging markets of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where Fundamo operates.