Visa to launch V.me digital wallet this Autumn

Payments firm Visa is planning to launch its digital wallet service in the UK, Spain and France with a small trial group of customers in Autumn. The service, V.me, will allow users to pay for items online using one account linked to a selection of different cards through a web browser on PCs, tablets, laptops and smartphones. The service is unlikely to offer mobile NFC payments at launch, but Visa said it eventually hopes to incorporate “any or all” payments technologies, including those taking place in the “mobile environment”. V.me will be delivered through Visa’s partner banks, which include high street names such as Halifax and Barclays. O2 is also a Visa partner, allowing the firm to offer payments through its O2 Wallet service launched last week. UK payments processing firm WorldPay, formerly owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, is working with Visa to offer the service. Other partners will be announced in coming months, said Visa. Visa Europe executive vice president of product marketing and solutions Mariano Dima said: “V.me sits at the heart of Visa’s future of payments. “For the first time, consumers and retailers will have a streamlined online checkout experience through an acceptance mark that offers industry-leading security and, when a Visa card is used in a V.me wallet, the same protection and rights that come with any Visa card transaction. “Our intention is that V.me will ultimately be able to incorporate any or all of our new payment technologies, allowing our members to deliver the best possible payments experience whether face-to-face, online or in a mobile environment.”