More than 40 largely lesser known US financial institutions are to put their brands on a mobile commerce app developed by Visa.

The Visa Digital Commerce App enables card issuers to offer services such as real-time account balances, card control, alerts about recent transactions and fraud concerns, as well as tokenised contactless payments made via Android smartphones.

The commerce app follows other steps made by the card giant in mobile payments, including its tokenisation initiative and developer platform.

The announcement quotes Daniel Van Dyke, analyst, Javelin Strategy & Research as saying: “As consumer awareness of mobile wallets has grown, financial institutions are increasingly looking to stake a claim in this market and capture the preferred ‘top-of-wallet’ position with their customers.”

“In our 2016 report, ‘What’s In Your Mobile Wallet?’, consumers stated they would be 51 percent more likely to use a wallet offered by their primary financial institution, making this an ideal time for banks and credit unions to introduce a branded digital app and capitalise on this preference,” he added.

The 40 US financial institutions include Affinity Federal Credit Union, PNC Bank and Webster Bank.