Tag: mobile payments europe

Visa and Monitise extend mobile payments partnership

Visa has announced that it is expanding its partnership with Monitise, a mobile payments company. The two companies have been working to expand the reach of mobile commerce throughout Europe and have been met with promising success thus far. Visa now aims to extend its partnership with Monitise through a new three-year commercial agreement. Per the agreement, the two companies will continue expanding into the European mobile commerce market, developing new mobile payments solutions that are designed with financial institutions in mind.

Mobile commerce is growing more popular among financial groups due to consumer demand

Mobile payments have been a relatively easy sell to consumers. Many people have shown  their willingness to use their smartphones and tablets to purchase goods and services. The concept has been more difficult to sell to financial institutions, which are more concerned with the risks associated with mobile commerce rather than its convenience. Despite these concerns and a reluctance to support mobile commerce, many European financial institutions are seeing rising demand from customers concerning mobile payments. Thus, these organizations are beginning to take steps to accommodate the wants of their customers.

New solutions to be introduced to European market

Through the agreements, Visa will be able to make use of mobile technology developed by Monitise. This technology will be put to use in the development of new mobile payments solutions. As these solutions take form, Visa will help promote them to European markets as well as help ensure that these solutions are secure against the threats that exist in the mobile world. Visa and Monitise have already deployed mobile payments services to more than 3,000 banks and financial institutions in Europe and the two companies are expected to look to take advantage of this momentum.

Visa and Monitise seek to dominate Europe with mobile payments

Visa notes that the way people pay for goods and services is changing. More people have access to smartphones and tablets than ever before and these consumers are finding that mobile commerce offers them a convenient and safe way to make purchases. Visa and Monitise will work to continue establishing their commanding presence in the European market, hoping to fortify themselves against competing parties that are looking to do the same.

Payleven has now stepped out of Germany for Android support in the Italy, Poland, and the U.K.

Payleven has just announced that its Android mobile payments app is exploding its way throughout Europe, as it leaves its previously exclusive Germany in favor of an addition of three more markets, which include Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

The app can now be downloaded in any of those countries through the Google Play Store.

The iOS app from that mobile payments company was already available in every market where that service is available. This includes Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Brazil, and the Netherlands. However, the company recognized that the Android environment presents a much larger number of challenges, simply because of the broad range of different types of hardware.

This meant that the mobile payments service needed to take far more variables into account.

A Payleven spokesperson explained that “As Android devices have different hardware components, it needs refinement to ensure app liability. So to actually launch Android perfectly in many countries is a long [process].”

Equally, though, while Android mobile payments may have meant greater complexity, it also has a tremendous user base, as the operating system has become a major dominant platform in the mobile commerce ecosystem. In fact approximately 70 percent of all worldwide smartphone shipments involve Android based devices.

This operating system is especially popular in the European market. For example, more than 70 percent of smartphones sold in Germany are based on that platform.

The Android mobile payments app from Payleven supports a number of different popular devices that use the platform. The company placed its primary compatibility focus on the most commonly used handsets, which include the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy SIII, Galaxy SII, as well as the HTC One Series line, which includes the One S, V, and X.

This mobile payments application allows merchants to use a dongle that is plugged into a compatible device in order to be able to accept debit and credit card transactions. The company charges the merchant 2.75 percent per transaction. It currently supports swipe-and-sign, but it has announced that in the first part of next year, it will also have a dongle that will accept chip-and-pin cards.