Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) and Visa (NYSE: V) have announced that they’ve teamed up to test a mobile payment system, just weeks after rumors began circulating that a number of cell phone carriers would test a competing system by partnering with Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS)
According to a report from Reuters, Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) will begin testing its pilot program in the New York City area in September, which will allow users to make payments with their smartphones in lieu of their credit cards. The test is expected to run through the end of the year. Visa told Reuters that it will also test a similar program with U.S. Bancorp sometime year, with that program set to begin in October.
“We see this as a critical capability given the increasing acceptance and adoption of bank services on the phone,” said Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) head of electronic commerce Laurie Readhead.
Bank of America Corporation is a bank holding company, and a financial holding company. The Company is a financial institution, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses, large corporations and governments with a range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. Through its banking subsidiaries (the Banks) and various nonbanking subsidiaries throughout the United States and in selected international markets, it provides a range of banking and nonbanking financial services and products through six business segments: Deposits, Global Card Services, Home Loans & Insurance, Global Banking, Global Markets, Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM), with the remaining operations recorded in All Other. On January 1, 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
Shares of Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) traded down 1.15% on Friday ending the week at $12.87.
