CurrentC Adding More Major Merchants in Columbus, ‘Open-Loop’ Cards To Come

Within a week, four more major retailers—ExxonMobil, Sears, Shell Oil, and WalMart—will join the CurrentC pilot that started last month in Columbus, Ohio. That’s according to Brian V. Mooney, a long-time processing executive who took over in April as interim chief executive of the mobile wallet’s sponsor organization, Merchant Customer Exchange LLC.

Mooney, who spoke Tuesday night during the opening of the Electronic Transactions Association’s Strategic Leadership conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., also said plans for CurrentC call for allowing users to load general-purpose cards, though he wouldn’t give specifics on how soon. “We’ll absolutely have open-loop credit and debit cards in the foreseeable future,” he said in answer to a query from Digital Transactions News. The wallet, which MCX began developing in 2012, currently works with the Target RedCard credit and debit cards and automated clearing house transfers from a bank account.

The four most recent merchant additions to the Columbus pilot join CVS, Giant Eagle, Market District, Target, and Wendy’s.

The pilot, which began Sept. 15, was a long time in gestation and has left some industry observers wondering whether MCX, a consortium of 40 major retailers representing 70 brands, can catch up with efforts like Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay, mobile-payments services that have launched commercial products.

Mooney, however, was unfazed. “We’ve made some missteps,” he told the audience of top acquiring executives. “We’ve been slower to market than we wanted to be. We’re going to improve.”

He said the pilot has already yielded market intelligence MCX is finding useful. For example, while CurrentC relies on barcode scanning to trigger transactions, MCX has been testing two ways of linking phones to the point of sale. One way is for the barcode to appear on the user’s device, and the other is for the merchant’s terminal to present the code. The former appears to be the winning method, Mooney said.

He also pointed to encouraging signs that the service, which combines offers with payment in a single transaction, is catching on in the Ohio city. “Consumers are telling us they like the simplicity, one swipe and you’re done,” Mooney said before apologizing for using an image associated with mag-stripe cards. At least some users are turning to CurrentC repeatedly. “Once they’re comfortable, they start using it more than once a week,” Mooney said.

While Mooney said CurrentC has been accepted so far in 150 locations in Columbus, he did not reveal other details of the pilot, such as how many users it has attracted or what transaction volumes have been. Nor did he indicate how long the pilot is set to run.

A user in nearby Hilliard who reported on her experiences for Digital Transactions News found cashiers’ knowledge of the app was spotty. She also had not seen any publicity for the pilot. An MCX spokesperson said the pilot was being supported by a mix of local media and in-store promotion.

As for CurrentC itself, it will likely be significantly different when it becomes generally available because of what MCX is learning in Columbus. “In the last month, we’ve found some things we want to change in the current product,” Mooney noted, without being more specific.