If you were curious as to what happened to CurrentC, the intended mobile payment service that was intended to compete with Apple Pay a few years ago, there’s an answer: JPMorgan bought it out.
Oddly enough, Chase Bank played both sides and was one of a few major banks to partner with Apple when Apple Pay launched back in the fall of 2014, but several retailers including CVS and Walmart blocked or denied plans to accept Apple Pay due to an upcoming CurrentC app and commitments to MCX, the company developing CurrentC.
Some CurrentC backers including Rite Aid and Best Buy eventually changed their course and added Apple Pay as a payment option in stores, and last summer efforts to bring CurrentC to market finally ended.
Chase currently remains an Apple Pay backer, although its in-house payment service, knows as “Chase Pay”, is based on MCX technology. Although CurrentC is dead, JPMorgan Chase says it has acquired MCX to help bring Chase Pay to more retailers.
MCX’s members were already connected to MCX payments technology, which made it seamless to connect to Chase Pay. Chase executives wanted to acquire the technology to use in lieu of building separate parallel technology to serve non-MCX members.
At present, only a few retailers currently accept CurrentC, especially given its QR code-based payment option. Best Buy and Starbucks, for example, accept both Apple Pay and were launch partners for Chase Pay, while JPMorgan Chase says Walmart, Shell, or other MCX members will start accepting Chase Pay in the future.
As always, stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via 9to5Mac