Monitise and Big Blue first teamed up last year to help Visa Europe member banks roll out cloud-based mobile money services but the pair are now deepening their relationship through a formal, global multi-year partnership.

The alliance brings together the IBM MobileFirst portfolio and the tech giant's financial services and retail industry expertise with Monitise's mobile banking and payments capabilities, spearheaded as an IBM Global Business Services' initiative.

The deal will see financial institutions get not just basic banking and payments capabilities but also access to data analytics to offer customers targeted services such as in-store engagement and location-based offerings.

Monitise will also move its production hosting and cloud requirements to IBM, including SoftLayer. The partners say that clients will benefit from Monitise's adoption of IBM BlueMix development environment, which will make implementations quicker and easier.

Steve Mills, SVP and group executive, IBM, says: "As the market for mobile payments is expanding, we are continuing to invest in the IBM MobileFirst portfolio to address this opportunity. The combination of our capabilities with Monitise will provide value to our clients, enhance the customer experience and drive business growth."

The backing of a tech giant with banking customers around the world is a boost for Monitise, which earlier this month was forced to cut its full year revenue growth forecast as it struggles with an overhaul of its business model, ditching big upfront license fees in favour of a subscription-based system.

The partnership also provides another example of IBM's growing commitment to mobile, coming on the heels of its enterprise mobility partnership with Apple, which will see it build business-specific apps for iPhones and iPads.