V.me by Visa pilots in 4 new European markets – other 4 countries will follow during 2015

Visa Europe recently announced that V.me by Visa is now in pilot with member banks in Norway, Sweden, Italy and Germany, taking the number of markets live or in pilot across Europe to nine. Markets planning on making the service available during 2015 include Greece, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Switzerland.

Visa Europe confirms ING Direct (Italy), Landesbank Berlin (Germany) and BW-Bank (Germany) have all now made their first live V.me by Visa transactions (supported by WorldPay as European acquirer) and will join leading banks and financial institutions such as Nationwide (UK), BPCE (France) and ING (Poland) in offering the service.

„V.me by Visa is gaining momentum across Europe with 48 partners live across the UK, France, Spain and Poland, and 6 partners in Germany, Italy, Norway and Sweden now going into pilot. Further members in all markets continue to work with Visa Europe and will be building the volume of wallet providers and retailers over the course of the next 12 months.”, according to the press release.

V.me by Visa is a bank-branded digital payment service, allowing banks and financial institutions to put their own name and branding on a service that is powered by Visa. Members live or in pilot with the service today are the UK, France, Spain, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Italy and Germany.

In July, Visa Europe announced a further €200m investment to support the development of European digital payment services. This includes a dedicated retailer adoption programme to increase the 26,000 retailers across Europe who already accept the V.me by Visa service.

Wendy Martin, Executive Director, V.me by Visa, said: “This is great news for V.me by Visa and demonstrates that there is consumer demand for a Member Branded digital payment service, giving customers the confidence they need when shopping online and on the move.”

V.me by Visa is a pan-European digital wallet service developed by Visa Europe. It makes online shopping simple and secure by removing the need for consumers to enter their card numbers, expiry dates and other personal details every time they make a purchase with an online retailer. The V.me by Visa digital wallet can be accessed through the internet browser on a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. The service will be made available through Visa Europe’s issuing members and consumers will be able to put any card from a major scheme into the wallet, regardless of the card issuer or payment scheme.