A retailer-supported consortium formed to create a mobile payment app as a competitor to Apple Pay plans to axe 30 jobs, comprising almost 40% of its current staff.
The Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium also plans to postpone the launch of its CurrentC app, marking the second delay within a year.
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CurrentC has been positioned as a rival to services such as Samsung Pay, Apple Pay and Google’s mobile-wallet app.
MCX was supported by major retailers such as CVS, Target, Rite Aid and Best Buy.
The idea behind rolling out a payment app was to enable retailers to have access to customer data from transactions while reducing the fees they have to pay to financial institutions.
Two years ago, MCX announced its plans to introduce CurrentC. However, it faced several challenges. For instance, the app was hacked soon after being tested in Ohio.
The app is also limited to users who provide the account details or use private-label store credit cards.
MCX Chief Executive Officer Brian Mooney was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the firm intends to focus on ‘working with financial institutions, like our partnership with Chase, to enable and scale mobile payment solutions’.
