Credit card firm Visa has unveiled a new brand (pictured) for the digital wallet it will launch early next year. The brand for the new wallet which will let users shop on their mobile phones or online will be V.me, the company has announced.  Visa has made a decision to differentiate the digital wallet from its powerful existing brand that is known globally. Users of V.me will be able to shop from early 2012 without having to share their card account information with sellers. Instead they will enter a user name and password when checking out. Later next year V.me will also work with NFC so that users can tap and go with their phones to make a purchase. A senior executive of Visa Europe last month pointed to a Q3 launch date for NFC. Commercial director Steve Perry mentioned August or September possible launch dates.

Cards that can be carried in the V.me digital wallet will include MasterCard, American Express and Discover as well as leading debit cards and of course Visa itself. The V.me wallet is currently in beta ahead of its commercial launch in early 2012.  Jennifer Schulz, Visa’s head of product, strategy and innovation, explained to AllThingsD why a separate brand had been created: “We wanted [the brand] to evoke Visa without saying Visa.” The firm is also offering a developer programme to encourage developers to use V.me when accepting payment for their apps. Visa emphasises V.me’s simplicity as a draw for developers. “Just drop in some simple Javascript tags and widgets in your app and with a few minor configurations your app will be ready to accept payments,” says the new website. Apps supporting the wallet will feature a V.me buy button.  Visa also aims to tempt developers with bank-level encryption that relieves them from handling payment card data by taking over their PCI-compliance for V.me transactions.