V.me by Visa, the first pan-European digital wallet service to be offered by banks and financial institutions, has launched in the UK, France, Spain and Poland. The UK’s Nationwide Building Society has been joined by BPCE and LCL in France, with ING Bank Slaski in pilot in Poland and multiple pilots also underway in Spain. Visa said that other major issuers will launch soon in all four markets, and that a pilot will launch in Ireland in early 2014. The full commercial launch and consumer marketing campaign is slated for late 2014. In the UK, any cardholder can sign up for the service. In other markets the service is currently being offered to a select group of consumers, with wider availability to follow in the coming months. Consumers in each country will be able to use their wallet at any European retailer that accepts V.me by Visa. More than 1,400 merchants currently accept V.me by Visa, with others due to join the program soon including Universal Music in the UK and Aquarelle, Brandalley, Made.com and Pecheur.com in France. By January 2014, up to 4,000 merchants will accept V.me by Visa, as a result of strategic partnerships with a number of payment industry services suppliers, including WorldPay in the UK, plus Be2Bill (Rentabiliweb), Lyra Networks, Monext, Paybox (Point), System Pay and Worldline in France. Nationwide’s Chief Executive Graham Beale said that V.me by Visa builds on the Building Society’s heritage of implementing practical technological solutions which improve the experience for our members. “This will make online shopping easier, faster and more secure for our over seven million credit and debit card customers,” he said.