BOSTON—CurrentC, the payments app created by the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), may be going away, according to a new report.
Pymnts.com reported that MCX CEO Brian Mooney recently stated that the CurrentC mobile payments product is folding its tent for now, and possibly for good.
The payments website posted the following released statement from Mooney.
“Utilizing unique feedback from the marketplace and our Columbus pilot, MCX has made a decision to concentrate more heavily in the immediate term on other aspects of our business including working with financial institutions, like our partnership with Chase, to enable and scale mobile payment solutions. As part of this transition, MCX will postpone a nationwide rollout of its CurrentC application. As MCX has said many times, the mobile payments space is just beginning to take shape – it is early in a long game. MCX’s owner-members remain committed to our future.
“As a result, MCX will need fewer resources. This change has resulted in staff reduction of approximately 30 employees. These are very tough decisions, but necessary steps. For those employees leaving us, we want to thank our colleagues for their hard work and dedication to MCX over the last several years.”
The MCX Consortium consists of collection of merchants that include Walmart, Target, Sunoco, Kohl's, Best Buy, Rite Aid, CVS, Lowe's, Sears, Shell, Michaels, 7-Eleven, and more. But problems within MCX have emerged as many of the member retailers—as their exclusivity contracts with MCX have expired—are turning to their own, in-house, payments solutions, like Walmart Pay.
In a previous CUToday.info report, Tom Davis, chief technology officer with CSCU, spotted trouble for MCX a while ago. Davis cited not only retailers turning to their own payments solutions, but also competition from Apple Pay merchant acceptance growing and the emergence of other digital wallets, like Samsung Pay.
Late last year Chase introduced Chase Pay, a mobile wallet that partners with MCX. Chase Pay works via QR code instead of over NFC—Apple Pay’s POS method. Users make purchases with their smartphones by showing a QR code to a cashier, which was the payments method for CurrentC.