Visa and Monitise, a UK company that provides technology for mobile financial services, today announced a joint venture targeted at the Indian market. The new venture will provide a platform for financial institutions and mobile operators in India to offer mobile money services to consumers.

The aim of the joint venture is to accelerate the existing deployment in India of mobile financial services such as banking, bill payment and public transport ticketing. It builds on an initial agreement last summer between the two companies under which Visa took a minority stake in Monitise.

“The venture will create a platform that is secure, reliable, scalable and interoperable,” said Jose Maria Ayuso (pictured), Visa’s head of products for the LAC region, during his keynote speech this morning at the GSMA Mobile Money Summit.

India is a tempting market for Visa to target via a mobile alliance. It has a fast-growing mobile penetration but limited exposure to conventional financial services. Over 90 percent of payments are in cash even though nearly half the population have bank accounts (Visa’s own figures), creating an opportunity for transactions via consumers’ mobile phones. India is also the world’s second-largest mobile market (after China) with an estimated 584 million mobile connections at the end of the first quarter, according to official government figures.

Thinking globally, Ayuso said mobile money is finally becoming a reality. Success will come through co-operation between financial and mobile industries. “It is time for us to move, to partner and to converge with mobile operators. We can’t do nothing,” said Ayuso.