JCB and Viva Wallet announced they are expanding the partnership's European rollout that will give JCB's 140 million card members the ability to have contact and contactless payments through Viva Wallet.

Using this service, merchants will be able to increase their brand footprint and receive sales from 24 countries and territories where JCB cards are issued, including Japan, China, Korea and Thailand, according to a report in Finextra.

The expanded rollout will include an additional six European nations, which is over and above the 17 countries which have already been enabled. The rollout will continue through late 2020, and when finished, will have spanned over 23 countries.

The partnership between the JCB and Viva Wallet includes streamlining face-to-face transactions, security for cardmembers' online credit and debit card transactions and providing cardmembers with a safe purchase experience.

This collaboration will support around 80,000 merchants in Greece, more than 3,000 merchants in Belgium, and more than 6,000 merchants in the U.K. and other countries across multiple industries including retail, food, and transportation.

"We always strive to combine our cloud-based processing infrastructure, our multiple principal memberships for acquiring and issuing services, and our participation in various payment systems across Europe, to benefit our merchant base making their payments' journey as seamless as possible," Makis Antypas, CIO and co-founder of Viva Wallet, said in the report, "We are very excited about our partnership with JCB, and we welcome their cardmembers, not only to make easier and faster online and offline payments, but also to accommodate the increasing demand for alternative payments methods in Europe, something not many other payment providers can support."