RBS and Visa launch V.me in the UK

V.me, Visa’s foray into the digital wallet space, has now seen the light of day, at least in the UK.

While the financial and payment services company chose RBS (and by extension Natwest) as its launch partner, V.me is going to be available with many more banks as the service grows more mature. According to the official statement by Visa, the “initial trial” is still underway and they are shooting for a primetime release sometime in spring 2013. Spain and France are also confirmed to be the other two eurozone countries that will get the service, although dates are still uncertain.

To refresh your memory, V.me exited beta with 53 bank partners and 23 retail partners, certainly giving it some credibility and initial momentum to storm a soon-to-be saturated market. With Paypal’s Digital Wallet, Google Wallet and Square Wallet all amongst its competitors, V.me will need every single one of its partners to make itself visible to consumers.

Check out the full press release from Visa below.

Visa Europe confirms RBS as launch partner for V.me by Visa

London, 28 November 2012 – Visa Europe today confirmed that RBS will be the first UK financial institution to launch the V.me by Visa digital wallet for RBS and NatWest consumers.

An initial trial for the RBS and Natwest wallet is currently underway, before a full rollout in the spring of 2013, making V.me by Visa available to customers of both brands.

Mariano Dima, Executive Vice President of Product and Marketing Solutions at Visa Europe, said: “We are delighted to announce RBS as the launch partner for Visa Europe’s V.me digital wallet in the UK. Visa is committed to making online payments even easier and more secure, and our partners such as RBS are helping us make this vision a reality. It is our intention to make the V.me brand as trusted and well known for digital payments as the Visa brand is on the high street today.”

Dima adds: “The feedback from banks in the UK has been extremely positive and we will be announcing further V.me support from several major banks in the coming months.”

Steve Rubenstein, Director of Everyday Banking at RBS, said: “As a business we are very excited by this partnership with Visa and the development of V.me. We believe that a proposition which reduces the effort of buying things online, while also improving security, for our customers is exactly the sort of thing we want to deliver. V.me clearly delivers this and we look forward to offering it to our customers in 2013.”

The fast and simple V.me by Visa payment experience allows consumers to complete online transactions through the internet browser on a PC, laptop, tablet, or smart phone in a simple and easy manner. As a result, both consumers and retailers can benefit from all the security and scale of the Visa brand.

V.me by Visa plays a key part in Visa Europe’s future of payments strategy, reflecting the company’s continued commitment to payments innovation and to bringing new services to market that benefit consumers, members and retailers. The service will continue to evolve post-launch to incorporate other Visa payment technologies, including contactless transactions at the point of sale and person-to-person payments.

Payments processor WorldPay is a key development partner in the delivery of the V.me by Visa proposition in the UK.

BBVA was recently confirmed as the V.me by Visa launch partner in Spain. The service will also launch in France in late 2012. Further issuing banks will be confirmed for all three markets at a later date.

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