Visa is set for a “mainstream launch” of contactless and mobile payments in the UK, working with both banks and mobile operators, reports Marketing Week.

Speaking at a Westminster eForum event, Visa UK and Ireland managing director Marc O’Brien said the credit card giant is working with “leading Android device manufacturers” as well as Telefonica and Vodafone to have security standards for mobile payments via NFC in place during 2013.

He said that Visa is working on the launch of a digital wallet for cloud-based e-commerce in 2013, in what sounds like a reference to V.me, the card firm’s digital wallet which is currently being trialled in the UK.

Visa has said that UK bank RBS will be the first financial institution in the country to launch V.me commercially in the spring of 2013.

According to the card giant, 17 per cent of the UK’s mobile handsets are currently NFC-enabled but that this is expected to grow to more than 70 per cent by 2017, a key component to any successful launch of mobile payments.

In terms of the take-up of contactless payments, the UK is second to Poland in Visa’s European footprint.

O’Brien said the card giant started with deployment of contactless technology in coffee shops in the UK but decided eventually that volume will actually come from national brands such as Boots and McDonald’s.

Contactless payments received a boost last year as Visa and Barclaycard tried to capitalise on the Olympics being held in London. However a study at the end of the year revealed that retailers had not so far delivered the marketing push needed to push contactless payments forward.