13/06/2011
By Scott Thompson
Visa is to acquire mobile financial services provider, Fundamo, for $110 million.
It has also announced a long-term commercial agreement with mobile money solutions outfit Monitise, in which it acquired a 14.4 per cent stake in 2009.
"Combining Visa's unparalleled network scale, global reach, extensive product suite and established financial institution relationships with Fundamo's expertise in delivering mobile financial services in developing economies presents us with an important long-term opportunity to grow our business and drive financial inclusion in key geographic markets," says Joseph W. Saunders, chairman and CEO at Visa Inc. "We are pleased to add Fundamo's industry leading technology solutions to our portfolio."
Meanwhile, a key focus of the alliance with Monitise is the introduction of new mobile services to existing Visa account holders outside the US that enable electronic payments on the go to meet consumers' daily needs including mobile top-up, utility payments, and transit ticketing.
The two will also launch a mobile banking solution in the US for clients of Visa DPS, the debit and prepaid processing platform. This new service is designed to enable Visa clients and processing partners in the US to quickly and efficiently offer their customers a suite of services, such as mobile payments, person-to-person payments, mobile transaction alerts and mobile marketing offers.
