Retailers Make Bid to Lead Mobile Payments

Over the past decade, the dominant payment networks (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) have accounted for most of the investment in mobile payments trials aimed at retailers. That has changed recently. 

Programs launched by Starbucks and a number of mobile point of sale suppliers such as Square, PayPal and others illustrate bids by retailers to operate their own closed loop systems, as well as new efforts by branded payment networks to reshape the payments clearing part of the business. 

But the formation of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) by major retailers is a bid by retailers to maintain better control over the emerging mobile payments business.

Created by merchants with some $1 trillion in annual retail sales, the MCX wants to create a standard for smart phone-based transactions for all major platforms. Its members include Best Buy, CVS, Sears, Shell Oil, Target, and Wal-Mart Stores.