Visa plans to launch global digital wallet initiative this fall

Visa Inc. (V) is trying to shepherd in a new era in financial transactions that will enable merchants and customers to take advantage of a new digital wallet and a growing arsenal of transaction types that leverage mobility.
The company announced it will be rolling out a series of new point-of-sale payment services, a cross-channel digital wallet and customized mobile payments services for different markets around the world.
The digital wallet, which Visa plans to launch in the United States and Canada this coming fall, will store Visa and non-Visa payment accounts and support near field communications (NFC) payments through Visa’s proprietary payWave platform. The company plans to support multiple commerce scenarios including online, mobile, micropayments, social networks and person-to-person payments.
This strategy and business plan represents the “next evolution of Visa,” Jennifer Schulz, Visa’s head of innovation, told RCR Wireless News.
“It’s the right time for Visa to step into this space especially with the ubiquity of these mobile devices,” she said.
“When you think about mobile isn’t not really changing transaction types,” Schulz added. “Commerce should be frictionless, it shouldn’t have a lot of hurdles.”
One of the key tenets of Visa’s strategy is to offer an open platform that allows customers to use a variety of accounts for payment. “Visa shouldn’t tell you what you can keep in your digital wallet,” Schulz said. “Any solution that wasn’t open would limit the convenience for that consumer.”
The company highlighted four key features of the digital wallet: click-to-buy, cross-channel payments, preference management and merchant offers.n Click-to-buy functionality will enable customers to enter an email address or online ID and password to complete a transaction. Cross-channel payments means that customers will be able to consolidate multiple Visa and non-Visa payments accounts into their wallet. Preference management will give customers the ability to customize and control the features of their wallet from privacy setting to setting preferred accounts that should be used to certain merchant types or purchase amounts. And finally, the new digital wallet will allow customers to opt-in to merchant promotions and discount offers.
Visa has already landed support from 14 financial institutions for the effort and plans to expand to more soon.