MCX's New Mobile Payment App CurrentC Aims To Challenge Apple Pay

Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) announced that it plans to launch CurrentC, its very own mobile payment app, sometime in the middle of this year. The new mobile payment platform is an attempt by a band of merchants to find a new way around the dreaded "swipe fees" associated with credit cards. Even retailers accepting Apple Pay have to succumb to swipe fees when the payment is tied to a credit of debit card. MCX will create a private pilot program to test the app in a mid-sized market. Later this year, the group plans to rollout CurrentC nationwide.

Merchant members of MCX include Best Buy, CVS, and Walmart. There are 62 members in all, and the group processes more tahn $1 trillion USD in payments every year. Considering its retail merchants, MCX has a huge opportunity to expand its platform. The company itself hasn't stated yet, but analysts predict that if the app becomes widespread, eventually the app could offer alternatives to using credit or debit cards on the mobile pay system. This would mean that retailers accepting CurrentC could escape the 2% and higher swipe fees they have to pay credit card companies for the privilege of accepting payments.

Another theory is that MCX would move away from the NFC payments like Apple and Google Pay and could try to use QR codes to send payments.

If CurrentC wants to be a solid competitor to Apple Pay it needs to get the ball rolling.

Although Apple Pay is already available at 67 retailers and over 700,000 merchant locations, NFC terminals have not been widely adopted by retailers. Only about 10% of U.S. stores have NFC-ready terminals, with Americans preferring traditional magnetic stripe cards.

Last year, CVS and Rite Aid (both MCX members) stopped accepting Apple Pay in a debate over its swipe fees. According to a brand new report, it looks as though Best Buy is forgoing its allegiance to the MCX and will be accepting Apple Pay. This could be the beginning of a fault line, crumbling the MCX master plan for CurrentC.

Source: Computer World