Vodafone and world-acclaimed credit card processor, Visa have jointly announced a worldwide mobile payments partnership. The companies will work together to develop a Vodafone-branded stored value mobile payment service that would be offered to Vodafone’s 398 million consumers across more than 30 countries where Vodafone has operations. The new Vodafone/Visa mobile payment proposition would be based on the Visa prepaid account and offered to consumers in partnership with Visa Issuers. The service would initially be launched in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, and the UK, starting in the coming financial year. Other countries within Vodafone's global portfolio, including Ghana, would follow at a later time, yet to be confirmed. A joint statement from the two companies said in addition to the Vodafone-branded account inside the mobile wallet, Vodafone and Visa would also work together to enable Visa Issuers for mobile payments globally. Vodafone Group Chief Executive, Vittorio Colao was quoted as saying "the Vodafone mobile wallet represents the next stage of the smartphone revolution - it offers our customers the speed, simplicity and convenience of managing their everyday transactions with a single wave or tap of their smartphone, using innovative and reliable services developed by Vodafone and Visa - technology and providers they can trust. He said the Vodafone mobile wallet would be open to any service provider, adding that Vodafone and Visa are committed to enable all their partners to provide their joint customers the richest service portfolio possible. The statement said “in developed countries across Europe, North America and Australia, with a mature infrastructure for electronic payments, users of the Vodafone stored value account will be able to make purchases at the-point-of sale using Near Field Communications (NFC) enabled smartphones equipped with Visa payWave for mobile. Consumers will also be able to make high value purchases securely using a passcode.” Vodafone added that the company is in discussions with a large number of service providers to host a broad range of services within a new Vodafone "virtual" mobile wallet. It said in addition to stored value accounts, it would also hold loyalty scheme points and gift voucher credits, complementing and sometimes replacing a whole class of plastic cards in the customer's wallet or purse. The company assured prospective customers that all Vodafone mobile wallet services - including the service announced with Visa today – would be compatible with standards currently being ratified by the global mobile industry body, the GSM Association.