Visa has launched a new managed service that it says will reduce the cost for operators to offer mobile financial services to consumers in the developing world without bank accounts.

Mobile operators, as well as banks and micro-lending institutions, will be able to launch their own mobile money services on top of the Visa platform.

The first such services are being launched  by Aircel and ICICI Bank in India, and Bank of Kigali and Urwego Opportunity Bank in Rwanda.

Subscribers in both countries will have access to an account that is linked to their mobile phone number.

Visa claims the service is the “world’s first bank-grade managed service for mobile money”.

The credit card giant will handle issues such as user interface design, authorisation, transaction processing, clearing and settlement, so reducing the headache for operators.

The platform, which is hosted in Visa’s data centres, is based on technology developed by Fundamo, a vendor acquired by the credit card giant in 2011.

Geoff King, Aircel’s head of mobile banking, said the deal with ICICI Bank was its first partnership with a bank in India but it now planned others, following its adoption of the Visa platform. Its subscribers will be able to use their handsets to send remittances, top up prepaid accounts and pay utility bills, he said.