Visa is planning to launch a universal payments system in response to the growing number of connected devices capable of making transactions, reports Les Echos.

Speaking in a joint interview with the publication, Visa’s CEO Charlie Scharf and Nicolas Huss, CEO of its operations in Europe (pictured), revealed the strategy, as well as opening up on the challenges the company faces in dealing with the growth of e-commerce and m-commerce solutions at the expense of cash.

Just last month, Visa Inc completed a deal to acquire its former subsidiary Visa Europe, with the tie-up designed to better enable the merged entity to take advantage of Europe’s mobile payments boom.

The company is now set to press ahead “to promote a universal payments system”, although details are vague at this point.

It will however target a strategy focused on partnerships, bringing together the merchant, the consumer and their respective banks, said Huss.

He also said the payments industry is being forced “to move from a closed world, to a world where any object can become an instrument of payment”, which presents a huge challenge, and was another reason behind the tie-up with Visa Inc.

Brexit will be disruptive
With Visa’s European operations headquartered in the UK, Scharf also touched on the country’s recent vote to leave the European Union (EU).

“The Brexit will have a disruptive effect but it does not change the fact that the movement of transferring cash transactions to electronic transactions offers us tremendous opportunities”.