Visa Allies with Samsung

In an attempt to expand its mobile commerce (mCommerce) initiatives, Visa Inc. ( V - Analyst Report ) inked a deal with global electronic device leader – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The parties will jointly steadfast mobile payments by functioning on near field communication (NFC) technology.

Accordingly, Samsung’s NFC-enabled mobile devices will now have a chip carrying the customer’s bank account information. This information will be accessed through Visa Mobile Provisioning Service.

Additionally, Samsung will have Visa’s payWave software application installed in all of its NFC-enabled smart mobile devices. Hence, the collaboration will result in enhanced security and faster checkout, with the convenience of a simple wave of the mobile device in front of a payment terminal. We believe this alliance will not only increase the payment efficiencies but also maintain the security, thereby allowing consumers the access to an authentic transaction and hardware-based display protection.

Further, this marks the first alliance of an electronic payment service provider with a mobile device manufacturer. Last year, Visa had teamed up multinational semiconductor chip maker –Intel Corporation(INTC) to blend its proficiencies in payment processing and account holder authentication with the latter’s high-grade innovative technologies.

Penetration into mCommerce

Separately, Visa announced its collaboration with Paris-based Ingenico SA’s ROAM – a leading mCommerce provider – to reach out to the merchants and retailers with easy and secure payment initiatives from various mobile devices.

Together, Visa and ROAM aim to initiate cost-effective mobile payment services for merchants and retailers. For this, ROAM has also joined Visa Ready Partner Program to roll out its mobile point-of-sale hardware exteriors with Visa’s payment solutions. Subsequently, ROAM has offered to develop and provide white label mobile acceptance devices for all EMV payments to Visa merchants.

Overall, the alliances elucidate the rapid progression in the NFC and mCommerce spaces. Hence, the card giants are promptly initiating various digital payment services to tap this opportunity. Support is also being drawn from retailers, banks, mobile device manufacturers and mobile service providers in order to offer a complete secured electronic payment terminal to consumers.

Visa carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other outperformers of the electronic payment service industry with a similar Zacks Rank include Total System Services Inc. ( TSS - Analyst Report ) , Fiserv Inc. ( FISV - Analyst Report ) and Global Payments Inc. ( GPN - Snapshot Report ) .