Payments giant Visa Inc. has entered into a strategic alliance with Monitise plc to facilitate the delivery of Visa mobile payments and related services to consumers worldwide.

As part of the strategic alliance, Visa has agreed to make a minority equity investment in Monitise, subject to Monitise shareholder approval. Monitise specializes in mobile financial services and operates payments and mobile banking services for some of world's leading financial institutions.

The alliance provides Visa with a strategic development partner for its comprehensive suite of mobile services, including mobile payments, mobile money transfer, mobile transaction alerts and mobile marketing offers.

Monitise facilitates customized development of mobile financial services for a broad range of handsets.

Through detection of phone make, model, screen size, browser type and multimedia capabilities, Monitise can optimize the user experience for Visa mobile payments and related services.

The two companies will work together to increase speed to market of unique payment and related services, including mobile user enrollment services, application development and channel management.

With the ever expanding growth in handsets, coupled with increasing sophistication of mobile networks, mobile payments and services present a significant growth opportunity, according to Visa.

In aligning with Monitise, Visa expects to expand the delivery of its mobile services to consumers worldwide, enabling them to use their mobile phones to buy goods and services, make payments, receive valuable information and offers, and transfer money between accounts.

Monitise specializes in mobile financial services, bringing together leading financial institutions, carriers and consumers through mobile devices.

Visa is tapping Monitise for its experience in developing and operating mobile platforms for financial institutions.

Over the last two years, Visa has worked closely with mobile industry stakeholders, including carriers, handset manufacturers, technology providers and industry groups to integrate the benefits of Visa electronic payments with mobile technology.

This alliance further reflects Visa's progress through partnership philosophy and supports Visa's mobile strategy to deliver the benefits of electronic payment products and services through the more than 4 billion mobile devices in use worldwide.