Financial services provider Visa Europe said Wednesday that it intends to take a 15 per cent stake in the Mobile Money Network (MMN) – a joint venture between Monitise, Best Buy Europe and Carphone Warehouse, and telecoms entrepreneur Charles Dunstone (as a private investor).

During MWC last week, telecoms.com spent some time with Bill Gajda, Visa’s head of global mobile, and Alastair Lukies, CEO of mobile money enabler Monitise, where we heard that Visa Europe and MMN will implement a number of m-commerce initiatives in the UK in 2012. The main thrust here is to bring a platform for bank-grade mobile shopping to the mass market.

The organisation’s mobile checkout offering, Simply Tap, allows customers to identify and purchase a product on their mobile via advertising, in-store or online channels, and have it delivered.

According to Visa, in Europe, there are 445 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards and There are 130 million in circulation in the UK, with £1 in every £3 spent on a Visa card.

Peter Ayliffe, CEO of Visa Europe said that by 2020, the company predicts that more than half of all its transactions will be carried out on a mobile device. MMN is already working with a number of retailers and has already launched services with HMV, Goldsmiths and Thorntons.

As part of the agreement Visa Europe will also take a seat on the MMN board.

Telecoms.com is doing a major feature on mobile money in April. Watch this space.