JP Morgan Chase will launch its own smartphone payment platform in mid-2016, it said Monday, going head-to-head with rival services from Apple, Google and Samsung.
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JPMorgan Chase has signed up retailer consortium MCX as a partner for Chase Pay, its new digital wallet leading the fight back against tech giants Apple, Google and Samsung in the increasingly crowded mobile money arena.
Chase, the largest USA bank, believes Chase Pay has one key advantage: the caliber of retailers it has brought on board, Gordon Smith, chief executive of the bank’s consumer business, told Reuters.
While its reliance on barcodes might not be as cool as the tap-and-go NFC system, it means CurrentC, and therefore Chase Pay, is compatible with a much larger number of smartphones. Another example Chase showed is paying for a dinner by taking a photo of the bill.
Chase has signed a deal with the Merchant Customer Exchange, a group of major retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Shell, to accept payments through the bank’s technology. Those businesses include Kohl’s, Chili’s, Sunoco and Best Buy.
In a few of these stores, customers will be able to pay by showing a QR code within the Chase Pay app. In others, Chase customers will have to use Chase Pay inside MCX’s own CurrentC app. It’s not clear which of the MCX member retailers will support which method. Retailers included in the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) ring up more than $1 trillion of sales per year and have over 100,000 outlets. In Chase Pay, however, only Chase cards are allowed. The app will work on Apple and Android-based phones.
Most importantly in winning over MCX merchants, Chase is promising fixed pricing, with no extra fees – zero dollar network fees, merchant processing fees and fraud liability.
Chase Pay will initially work for consumers that already have Chase credit, debit, and prepaid cards, Smith told Reuters.
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But while trials of the technology are ongoing, CurrentC has yet to launch – something that will need to happen before Chase Pay can get off the ground.
