Visa and Monitise to launch JV in India

The joint venture builds on an existing partnership between Visa and Monitise[2,and will give providers of financial services in India a platform to accelerate the delivery of mobile financial services such as banking,bill payments,mass transit ticketing,mobile top-up and others to consumers. India is the world’s second largest mobile market with an estimated 584 million mobile phone subscriptions as of 31 March 2010[3.

Over the past two years,Visa has actively partnered with financial institutions,mobile network operators and technology providers,including Monitise,to extend the benefits of digital currency to more consumers in more countries around the world. Visa has enabled the development and commercialization of a broad range of mobile financial services,including those that have the potential to bring the more than one billion unbanked mobile subscribers into the financial mainstream.

“Creating this joint venture is a crucial step that can help expand the acceptance of digital currency in India and enable the migration of $700 billion of annual consumer spending from cash to electronic forms of payments,” said Elizabeth Buse,Group Executive,International,Visa Inc. “Together,Visa and Monitise can provide banks and mobile network operators in India the scale,security,and reliability required to make mobile money a reality for consumers.”

Alastair Lukies,Chief Executive Officer of Monitise,said: “This exciting extension of our successful partnership with Visa will enable providers of financial services to have a single secure and convenient link to offer a wide range of services via a mobile device. India’s mobile market offers tremendous growth opportunities for this joint venture and for our customers.”