Card brand Visa Inc. has added three mobile point-of-sale providers to its Visa Ready Program, and approved two additional mPOS providers to accept Visa payments, the company said.

Mobile POS providers SumUp, iZettle and Swiff have all been included in the Visa Ready Program, giving them access to tools like Visa's APIs and SDKs. Meanwhile, AnywhereCommerce and Miura Systems can now accept Visa payments.

"The Visa Ready Program is designed to provide innovators with an easy way to collaborate with Visa and gives merchants and consumers the peace-of-mind they need when transacting with a mobile phone," said Jim McCarthy, global head of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa. "Mobile acceptance technology is precisely the kind of innovation we need to bring the benefits of electronic payments to more merchants, financial institutions and consumers around the globe."

Mobile POS sale solutions are one area where mobile payments have taken off, and Visa is a big supporter. It's not hard to reason why.

Solutions from mPOS providers turn a smartphone or tablet into a credit and debit card processing terminal. The solutions are marketed towards smaller businesses that may not have been able to accept electronic payments in the past. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, that portion of the market represents $1.1 trillion in annual transactions that could be migrated to credit and debit cards.

Visa also made an early investment in mPOS leader Square, adding an undisclosed amount to the company's Series B round in 2011.

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