Tuesday 12 January 2016

Mobile wallet industry plans to cash in on big 2016

American consumers will have more choices in 2016 for how they make purchases with their smart phones as big banks and retailers vie for market share against tech giants Apple and Google.

Companies like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wal-Mart Stores are rolling out their own products just as mobile-payment apps are catching on. By 2019, eMarketer estimates, the total value of transactions made by tapping a phone on an in-store terminal will reach $210 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2015. For banks and retailers, that presents an opportunity to take on Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay – and maybe save on transaction fees to boot.

“Every one of the top 11 issuers of credit and debit cards by the end of next year will have their own version of Pay,” said Richard Crone, chief executive officer of Crone Consulting LLC. “Same for retailers. The big losers are going to be the ones with nothing.”

At stake is a fight over money and consumer data: Retailers loathe paying fees to accept credit cards in their stores and have long sought better data on what their customers buy, and when. Banks similarly dislike paying fees for Apple Pay transactions. Thus, financial institutions and retailers have incentive to push out their own mobile-payment services.

Here are some of the mobile wallets that will compete for consumers’ attention in 2016:


∎ JPMorgan Chase plans to introduce its own mobile wallet in mid-2016. Mobile-banking apps are already used by more than half of U.S. smart phone owners with bank accounts, according to the latest Federal Reserve survey. Chase plans to pre-load cards for 94 million customer accounts “so the customer doesn’t have to do anything but accept the terms and conditions,” Gordon Smith, CEO of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan Chase, said at the Money 20/20 conference in October.

∎ Wal-Mart will begin accepting payments through its mobile app in all U.S. stores in the first half of 2016. About 22 million Walmart shoppers already use the app, which compares prices and offers discounts on items and will now let customers store their credit- and debit-card information.

∎ Merchant Customer Exchange – a consortium founded in August 2012 by merchants including Wal-Mart and Target Corp. – is testing its CurrentC app with about 200 merchants in Columbus, Ohio. The service is not yet available nationwide.

Read More: http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/nation/world/20305545-95/mobile-wallet-industry-plans-to-cash-in-on-big-2016

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