Visa today is announcing a key development in its bid to build a ubiquitous digital wallet service to compete against the likes of PayPal. It has signed on Overstock.com as the lastest retailer to use V.me. That service now has 35 online merchants signed up, but Overstock, which makes some $1 billion in online sales annually across categories like furniture, rugs, bedding, electronics, jewelry and… → Read More
Visa believes that by 2020 more than half of all payments made in Europe will be done through mobile devices, so it is continuing to put more investment into how it will remain a central part of those transactions. In the latest development, mobile money specialist Monitise has announced an extended deal in which Visa Europe will license all of Monitise’s technology in an agreement it says will… → Read More
Visa is picking up steam quickly on its PayPal competitor, the V.me digital wallet service. Today it is adding another major U.S. bank, the Bank of America, to its existing list of 50 partners; and it has signed its second international deal, with the Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK, which also includes National Westminster bank. → Read More
As the digital wallet battle rages on here in the U.S., with Google Wallet, Amex’s Serve, MasterCard’s PayPass, Square, PayPal, carrier-backed Isis, and others all wrangling for a piece of the action, Visa’s digital wallet V.me is today exiting from beta, and announcing numbers related to its current traction. The company says that it has now signed up over 50 financial institutions to its… → Read More
Visa is gunning against MasterCard’s PayPass, PayPal, Square and others to become consumers’ default digital wallet for online and mobile payments, and today it’s announcing two pieces of news in that strategy: it is adding PNC as its first U.S. banking partner, and 1-800-FLOWERS as a key retailer, to its V.me digital wallet scheme.
The PNC deal will see V.me integrated into PNC’s existing… → Read More
A bit of a setback today for mobile payments and specifically iZettle — the startup modelled as a kind of “European Square” for merchants to take card payments on their phones. The company today had to shut off accepting Visa cards in three of the markets where it has been running pilots — Denmark, Finland and Norway — over what appears to be a problem with how it authenticated users on its… → Read More
This week, two of the major players in the credit card industry, Visa and MasterCard launched their online digital wallet services. Known as V.me (Visa’s) and PayPass Wallet Services (MasterCard), both are very similar initiatives which see the companies clamoring to become the credit card of choice for digital transactions, the way they fight today to be the credit card for all the other… → Read More
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Visa announced a new over-the-air provisioning service for smartphones for use with Visa’s payWave mobile payments system. The service will make it easier for operators, banks and even transit operators to link Visa payment accounts to consumers’ smartphones, the company says.
Although perhaps not as exciting as news of a mobile wallet “app” in consumers’… → Read More
We’ve already caught wind of the Lenovo K800 and Orange’s newly-announced Santa Clara but Intel CEO Paul Otellini isn’t content to leave their push into mobile at that.
Otellini has just announced that Intel has entered into partnerships with a handful of companies in hopes of solidifying their place in the smartphone market. Among those new partners are relative unknowns like Lava… → Read More
Visa is making a major move in the commerce and technology space, teaming up with Shopkick, an innovative geo-coupon system that has received funding from Kleiner Perkins, Greylock, SV Angel and others. The two companies will begin offering consumers a way to receive rewards points for retailers at the point of sale when they use their Visa credit cards.
With the new partnership, called ‘Buy… → Read More
Rumors have been floating around for a while now that Visa and Samsung had something special planned for the Olympic Games next year. With about ten months left before the games kick off in London, Visa has formally confirmed that they are building a special phone for the Olympics and that it will, in fact, have an NFC chip.
Pocket Lint confirmed the phone with Sandra Alzetta, Visa Europe’s… → Read More
PayPal is boosting its leadership in Asia today with the addition of Visa exec Rupert Keeley. Keeley is joining eBay-owned PayPal to run its payments business in the Asia Pacific market.
This is a win for PayPal because Keeley has significant experience in managing payments services in Asia and other international markets. Prior to joining PayPal, Keeley served as President for the… → Read More
We know Visa is getting serious about mobile and digital payments. Part of this plan involves adopting NFC and other chip technologies that will enable mobile transactions. Today, the company is announcing that it will accelerate the migration to EMV contact (those chips that are sometimes found in your credit cards) and contactless chip technology in the United States.
Visa says that the… → Read More
It’s no secret that credit card companies are shelling out big bucks and aggressively forming partnerships and deals to start cashing in on the mobile and digital payments innovations currently taking place. American Express, which recently debuted its own digital payments product Serve, has been particularly aggressive on the partnerships front, striking recent deals with both Foursquare and … → Read More
A new study is being released by Visa-owned PlaySpan with research firm VGMarket on how and what gamers are spending on virtual goods. According to the study, nearly one-third of the general gamer population has used real world money (as opposed to virtual currency) to purchase virtual goods. Console games with online play account for the majority (51%) of virtual purchases using real world money… → Read More
Visa this morning announced that it has agreed to acquire Fundamo, a specialist mobile financial services provider to network operators and financial institutions in developing economies, for $110 million in cash.
In a separate announcement, the giant payments technology company said it has entered into a new, long-term commercial agreement with Monitise, a provider of mobile money solutions for… → Read More
Yesterday was a big day for hot mobile payments startup Square. The company announced that it received a strategic investment from Visa, giving the company a big stamp approval. And it also announced something that got far less attention: Square will be releasing a new card reader (the thing you plug into your phone) this summer, and it will use encryption at the read head. The news was announced… → Read More
There is no doubt that mobile payments company Square is on a roll. The company just landed a lucrative deal selling its credit card readers in Apple’s retail stores and is growing at a fast clip. And now the company has just received a strategic investment from a giant in the credit card industry—Visa.
For background, Square offers iPhone, Android and an iPad app which allows merchants to… → Read More
Following in the footsteps of rival Visa, American Express this morning announced a digital payment and commerce platform dubbed Serve, enabling U.S. consumers to make purchases and person-to-person payments online, via mobile phones and at AmEx’s network of millions of merchants.
Serve integrates a variety of payment options into a single account that can be funded from a bank account, debit… → Read More
The idea of turning your mobile phone into a digital wallet has a long and fruitless history. People are getting excited again about the prospect of mobile wallets replacing those in your pocket overstuffed with receipts and credit cards because both Google and Apple are pursuing the concept. The key technology that could make mobile wallets a reality are near field communication (NFC) chips. … → Read More
Giant retail electronic payments network operator Visa is giving PayPal a run for its money today, announcing a new service that will allows U.S. consumers to receive and send funds to any eligible Visa credit, debit or prepaid account.
Now, bank customers of participating financial institutions will have the option to select a Visa account as the destination for funds when making a personal… → Read More
While attending the Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, it became clear to me that, while many startups are entering the market with mobile payments solutions, the incumbent card networks are likewise devising their own strategies to be part of the new ecosystem. A quick Q&A with Visa’s head of mobile, Bill Gajda revealed a bit about their strategy for keeping their credit products hip… → Read More
PlaySpan, a virtual goods monetization platform, has been acquired by Visa. According to the release, Visa will pay $190 million in cash for the company, plus additional payouts for performance milestones. The deal comes nearly a year after Visa spent a whopping $2 billion on e-payment company CyberSource. Visa says that the acquisition of PlaySpan complements the CyberSource deal and will extend… → Read More
Gundam statues, coffee shops, PS3 consoles, even jets – Japan’s love for the cult anime Gundam is limitless. And today, major Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui announced [JP] something entirely new: a Gundam credit card. → Read More
Giant retail electronic payments network operator Visa has released a free iPhone app in the United States, giving users access to over 50 merchant offers ranging from clothing and dining to entertainment, just in time for the holiday shopping season.
The app will allow retailers such as New York & Company, Planet Hollywood, Holiday Inn, Hard Rock Café and Zales to automatically deliver… → Read More
Like a good number of startups, payments technology giant Visa too wants to make shopping on the Web more socially interactive, visually appealing and easy to manage.
Today, the company is formally introducing a free Web-based tool dubbed Rightcliq, which it markets as a social e-commerce service. → Read More
Payment network operator Visa has agreed to acquire e-payment company CyberSource for $26 per share, or total consideration of approximately $2 billion to be paid with cash on hand. The price represents a near 34 percent premium over Mountain View-based CyberSource’s Tuesday closing price.
The deal will enable Visa to bolster online sales and offer new and enhanced online fraud prevention… → Read More
Achieving Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance for online transactions is an expensive and timely endeavor; routinely costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and spanning several quarters to reach the desired status. In fact, according to Gartner, PCI compliance will cost up to an average of $2.7 million among Level 1 merchants and $267,000 among Level 2 merchants. → Read More
Americans, virtuous and true, would you use your cellphone as a credit card? That is, instead of whipping out the plastic in front of some high school kid manning the register at Target, would you wave your connected-to-your-credit-card-account cellphone in front of a scanner? In the blink of an eye your transaction is completed, with the total amount being charged to your credit card account. → Read More
Sure, that Street Fighter IV-branded Visa pre-paid debit card looks cool—hey, it’s Ryu v. Ken!—but you’d better look at the fine print lest The Powers That Be nickel-and-dime you. In short, there’s a hell of a lot of fees associated with the card that you ought to know about. → Read More
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