Visa goes into mobile payments via QR Codes

Visa has launched a new payment system, called mVisa, which enables mobile payments between merchants and customers.

 

The system is based primarily on QR codes, but it also works with numerical codes for future phones. When making a purchase with mVisa, a consumer uses a smartphone to scan a QR code, which triggers a transfer from the consumer’s bank account to the merchant.

 

According to Visa, the mobile payments system works regardless of the customer and merchant’s respective banks, and it operates independent of their MNO services. It is also compliant with EMVCo’s newly published QR Code Payment Specifications.

 

The mVisa platform is targeted to merchants looking for a cheap and easy means of enabling mobile payments for their customers. Visa says that support for the platform is available in India, Kenya, and Nigeria, and that it is now working to extend the service in 12 additional countries including Cambodia, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam.