Mobile banking and payment vendor Monitise has strengthened its alliance with Visa Europe with news that the credit card giant has invested £24.7 million in the firm for an 8.8 percent stake. Visa Europe – owned by an alliance of more than 4,000 European banks –signed a deal earlier this year to use Monitise software to support mobile payments between its members. Monitise also has a similar deal with Visa Inc (its largest shareholder with a 14 percent stake) covering the rest of the world. Visa Europe’s chief executive Peter Ayliffe will join the Monitise board as part of the deal, which sees Monitise issue 70.5 million new shares to Visa Europe at £0.35 each.

Meanwhile Monitise also said it has brought out its US joint venture partner Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) in a deal that hands FIS a 3.3 percent stake in Monitise. Monitise’s acquisition of the 51 percent stake in Monitise Americas values that business at US$29.4 million.