• September 26, 2008

Electronic payment giant Visa plans to expand its mobile payment service by year's end, including the addition of applications for Google's new Android operating system.

Android apps would allow Chase Visa cardholders to receive notification of account transactions, obtain merchant offers and use the platform's GPS technology to find nearby stores to redeem offers and locate ATMs.

The company will also create a payment application to let cardholders make mobile payments in retail locations or on the go. Further, Visa will deliver services including contactless payments, money transfers and alerts for Nokia handsets.

In another initiative, Visa will partner with U.S. Bank to begin a mobile money transfer pilot program allowing cardholders to send funds directly to another registered Visa customer account. The pilot to start by year's end is the first U.S.-based test of mobile money transfers between Visa accounts.

Visa last month launched a pilot program testing real-time transaction alerts sent to mobile phones through SMS text messaging and e-mail.--Mark Walsh