Visa Inc. is making a lot of news during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

Along with news of its partnership with Vodafone, Visa announced a new product developed in conjunction with trusted service management (TSM) company Oberthur Technologies. The new service, a so-called "one stop solution," lets financial institutions and mobile network operators securely download payment account information to NFC-enbabled smartphones. It's aimed at making it easier for companies looking to issue mobile payment products to provision, secure and manage the accounts on mobile devices.

"In the same way we have enabled the secure provisioning of payment cards for decades, we are now using mobile technology to securely provision mobile payment accounts over the air,” said Bill Gajda, head of Visa's mobile products.

"Financial institutions, mobile network operators and even transit operators now have a simple, secure process to activate payment applications at scale and make mobile payments part of everyday life for consumers around the world," Gajda said.

Visa said the service will include support for Visa and non-Visa payment, loyalty or mass transit applications on mobile devices, giving the example of a consumer downloading the appropriate app for a mass transit system in another city as a possible use for the technology.

According to the announcement, the new solution addresses a need for every member of the mobile payment ecosystem, from account holders to MNOs.

Visa said its next step will be to expand the product to create a "hub" that will not only connect one device to one account, but enable frictionless "many-to-many" accounts, avoiding what it calls "the need for parties to form bilateral commercial and technical relationships."

For more stories like this, visit the contactless/NFC research center.