Visa Europe to invest €100m in mobile and e-commerce


8 Apr 2011

Visa Europe is planning to invest €100m each year to generate growth through the union of card payments with mobile and e-commerce, the company announced today.

Peter Ayliffe, Visa Europe CEO, said the company is witnessing strong double-digit growth in the usage of Visa cards throughout Europe, particularly with debit. 

The popularity of Visa cards’ growth will continue to rise over the next few years as electronic payments displaces cash. During this time, the company expects to see the emergence of contactless and mobile payments, and even further growth in e-commerce.

“To realise this opportunity, Visa Europe will invest €100m annually. The first results of this will be commercial launches of mobile payments before the end of 2011, closely followed by a major launch in e-commerce payments that will be the most convenient and secure way to pay,” he added.

Visa Europe reported in Barcelona that it is continuing to see double-digit growth in 2011, with transactions processed in the first quarter increasing by 22.6pc year on year, with underlying growth of 10.6pc.

This continues the growth trend Visa Europe reported this January for its 2010 annual business results, when it also reported it had invested €1bn on payment technology since Visa Europe was established in 2004. 

This €1bn investment has created Visa Europe’s transaction processing infrastructure, offering a reliable and secure authorisation, clearing and settlement system.

Also, in Europe, this investment has enabled the launch of chip cards, the development of contactless, mobile and e-commerce payments, and the implementation of more sophisticated risk management.

Visa Europe said the €100m investment will now help commercially launch mobile payments and its new e-commerce development.

“In just 10 years, we have moved from €1 in every €18 spent in Europe on a Visa card to €1 in €8,” Ayliffe said. “Today, we have committed to accelerate this displacement of cash by bringing to market ways to pay that bring true convergence between electronic payments and mobile and e-commerce technology.”

In Europe, there are 427m Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. Last year, those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of €1.6trn.

Visa Europe is owned and operated by more than 4,000 European member banks.