Visa research had found that phone users were increasingly interested in the idea that their mobile device could be used for making payment transactions, Mr Coghlan said.
“Given the striking similarities in the paths our two industries have traveled, it is only natural we have arrived at a moment of convergence,” Mr Coghlan told the Cellular Telephone & Internet Association conference in Orlando.
“In fact, the convergence of payments and mobile communications is not just logical - it is inevitable.”
Visa recently announced its own mobile platform, a set of mobile services and enabling technologies that serve as flexible building blocks for the development of mobile payment solutions.
Mr Coghlan announced a strategic investment in dotMobi, a consortium of industry players pioneering the .mobi domain and is working on ways to enable mobile commerce into phones.
The company also announced an alliance and investment in Ecrio, which develops software for mobile phones on 3G networks. The company has software that lets barcode-enabled coupons and tickets be redeemed from mobile phones using existing point of sales equipment.
Mr Coghlan also said that VeriSign had announced it support the Visa mobile platform. Visa is also working with Qualcomm and Kyocera Wireless on integrating the Visa mobile platform in handsets.
Mr Coghlan said Visa research had found that four out of five consumers would prefer mobile purchases to pass through a credit or debit card network and appear on their card statement instead of appearing on their wireless bill.
Fifty-seven percent of consumers surveyed expressed interest in getting a phone with a payment application when shown what a payment-enabled phone might look like, and nearly 90 per cent of those who were interested in mobile payment said they would pay extra for a phone with this feature.
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