The latest organisation to sign up for Visa’s digital wallet – V.me – is the Nationwide Building Society and it is preparing to rollout an initial trial this year.
V.me is a payment system where customers can store multiple payment cards in a digital wallet and make online payments without having to enter their card details after registration. The point is to try to make online banking more secure and convenient.
Visa Europe announced last year that the first UK bank to sign up for the service were the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest. Another key development partner for the UK offerings has been Worldpay.
Visa Europe has ambitious plans for its digital wallet. It believes that one-third of all European consumers will be using V.me by 2020. Beyond these launch trials, Visa Europe says that the V.me service will continue to evolve and should incorporate other Visa technologies including contactless payment at the point of sale and person-to-person payments.
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The company does have an advantage over many other fintech innovators through its recognisable brand. In Europe alone there are 466 million Visa cards and in the year up to September 2012, over €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) was spent on Visa debit cards.
Established financial services do well to update their digital offerings. The possibilities for digital payment have been widened as companies like Square process over $10 billion in payments annually and iZettle and Payleven make headway in Europe.
Hopefully soon at least, digital payments might mean that leaving your physical wallet at home won’t see you caught short.
Image Credit: Declan TM / Flickr
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