JPMorgan Chase has agreed to acquire the mobile payments technology from the Merchant Customer Exchange and absorb those resources into Chase Pay, cementing that MCX’s mobile payment program is no more.

MCX, a collection of retailers, had begun working on its own mobile payment program a few years ago called CurrentC, which ended up being a non-starter. Now that the JPMorgan is absorbing what is left of it to its own mobile payment system, the platform is finally put to rest.

“When we think about ‘fintech,’ we go through a ‘build/buy/partner’ evaluation to decide how we can get to market most efficiently,” said Jennifer Roberts, head of Chase Pay. “MCX has been an important partner, and their technology complements ours, so we’re thrilled to deepen our relationships with the merchant community through the purchase of this technology.

“This will help us get to market faster.”

CurrentC
Mobile payments have been a significant figure in the retail world for a few years now, and the growing number of different mobile pay options has contributed to their popularity.

While most retailers are content to integrate with existing platforms such as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay in order to serve more customers, some brands have taken it into their own hands to create their own mobile pay systems.

One such attempt at this began a few years ago when the MCX, a group of retailers including 7-Eleven, Walmart and CVS, banded together to create their own shared mobile payment platform called CurrentC.

CurrentC never got very far off the ground however, and once individual members of MCX began coming up with their own platforms such as Walmart Pay, CurrentC seemed like it was finished.

But the platform lay dormant for a few years until now that JPMorgan has acquired what remains of CurrentC to be integrated into its own payment system through Chase Bank, Chase Pay.

This partnership will also allow Chase to offer equal mobile payment options to customers at MCX retailers and non-MCX retailers.

Chase Pay
While many retailers that are a part of the MCX have begun adopting their own mobile payments, such as the aforementioned Walmart Pay, many of the others have been started using Chase Pay.

The latest of which was Best Buy, whose adoption of Chase Pay was one of the most recent signs of CurrentC’s end (see story).

That Chase Pay has been the most successful with its own mobile payment option compared to retailers is not surprising as banks and credit card companies have been leading the way in terms of mobile payment systems.

Mastercard has been taking the lead on this front with its Masterpass platform, which has seen significant success in expanding to a variety of industries and retailers (see story).

With the last of CurrentC subsumed into Chase Pay, the MCX retailers are likely to shift their focus to other mobile payment options.

“Consistent with our mission to provide secure, consumer friendly, and cost effective mobile payment solutions to the marketplace, MCX took advantage of this opportunity to have the solution expanded to the broader merchant community”, said Brian Mooney, CEO of MCX.