SAN RAFAEL, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 1, 2013) - Monitise plc (LSE: MONI) announces it has become the preferred Mobile Money technology partner for Telefónica Digital to develop and manage new and existing mobile payment and commerce services for its customers.

The agreement comes as the strategic and commercial merits of Monitise's proven and established platform technology enabling consumers to bank, pay and buy via mobile are recognised by an increasing range of businesses keen to take advantage of the worldwide Mobile Money opportunity.

IDC Financial Insights forecasts that more than a trillion dollars will be spent around the world using mobile devices by 2017.

Under the terms of the agreement, Monitise will complement existing technology partners, taking a lead role in the development of a global technology platform to support payment and mobile commerce services. The initial focus of the partnership will be in the UK.

Telefónica Digital is the global innovation arm of Telefónica, one of the world's largest telecommunications businesses with more than 316m subscribers in 24 countries. It operates using the O2, Movistar and Vivo commercial brands.

The multi-year partnership with Telefónica Digital represents the latest milestone in Monitise's strategy to be the leading global enabler for Mobile Money. The company has built a payments and commerce platform onto its proven and trusted bank-grade and interoperable core mobile banking services.

Monitise's ecosystem connects hundreds of organisations from banking, payments, mobile, merchants and media to millions of consumers around the world via its Bank Anywhere, Pay Anyone and Buy Anything product range. The partnership with Telefónica will leverage Monitise's mobile payments and shopping technology.

Welcoming today's agreement, Telefónica Digital Chief Executive Matthew Key said: "Monitise shares our vision of delivering simple, convenient and secure mobile payments and commerce services to consumers. They have established themselves as a true leader in the m-commerce ecosystem and are the ideal partner to help us take our capabilities in this area to the next level, continuing to bring high quality services to our customers."

Monitise Group Chief Executive Alastair Lukies said: "We are delighted to be working with Telefónica, one of the 50 largest companies in the world, pooling our shared experiences and innovations in new ways to create even more compelling secure Mobile Money services that are easy for consumers to use, every minute of every day."

Lukies added: "This new partnership leverages our Mobile Money platforms, products and assets. Successful mobile commerce, whether local in-market solutions or global services, is ultimately about collaboration. Partnerships like this show how we are at the heart of the accelerating convergence via mobile between the offline and digital worlds of banking, payments and commerce."