Given the somewhat muted success of massive mobile payment joint ventures, it may come as a surprise that Spanish banks Santander and CaixaBank, along with wireless carrier Telefónica, have announced a new JV that will "develop new business opportunities." Among those opportunities is a digital wallet.

According to the announcement of the JV, the digital wallet will offer payments, peer-to-peer money transfers and even serve as identification at participating merchants.

The digital wallet won't be the initial product offering, the partners said. For now, the JV will begin with "the management of an online community to ease the connection between merchants and consumers when it comes to offers, discounts and promotions," they said.

Unlike other JVs aimed at creating "national" mobile payment services, the new Spanish JV is looking at the wider world with an eye toward leveraging the partners' international footprints and offering mobile payment services around the globe.

The new company said it will also seek partnerships in other markets with "the possibility that other entities could offer the services of the new company," implying the new JV will look at providing white label solutions.

"Based on new technologies, the new company will design services accessible for customers from all over the world," said CaixaBank CEO Juan María Nin.

For Telefonica, company CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete noted the profound change happening in the way consumers buy things.

"Digital technologies are transforming how consumers research products and then identify the best prices, promotions or discounts," Álvarez-Pallete said. "This joint venture combines the partners' technical and financial services expertise to create an ecosystem for the benefit of both retailers and consumers."

Along with offering a digital wallet and P2P payments, the Spanish JV will also offer merchants customer acquisition and retention tools, as well as data analytics, the partners said.

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