MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson held a virtual press conference with the press yesterday to address questions and concerns over CurrentC, its upcoming mobile payments solution.
Davidson noted MCX is open to other forms of tech beyond QR codes, but if need be they will move to NFC, saying “We’re agnostic about technology. We started with QR code-based technology that allows us to go to market broadly. If we need, we can pivot to NFC.”
MCX is already working with retailers to implement “other technology that goes beyond QR codes”, such as Bluetooth Low-Energy implementations.
Addressing the New York Times piece which claimed members could be fined if they were to accept rival mobile payment services such as Apple Pay, Davidson said the information was false, stating “it’s simply not true, there are no fines,” according to TechCrunch.
As for the recent hack that resulted in some stolen emails, the CEO noted “the hack reminds us that there are people that are motivated to steal information. Our systems have been attacked repeatedly in the last 7 to 8 days…clearly any type of attack or incident is one you have to learn from to get stronger – and we will get stronger. We’re challenging the status quo…when you poke at a large ecosystem like that, you should expect attacks.”
When asked about CurrentC being available alongside Apple Pay and other mobile payments, he said “In the future, that could be entirely possible…there will need to be two to three strong players in the ecosystem. One won’t simply build the market.”
Despite MCX’s CEO answering these questions, the bottom line is the large group of retailers is looking for a way to bypass fees charged by credit card companies currently eating away at their bottom line.
According to some estimates, US retailers paid $48 billion in fees to credit card companies in 2013. CurrentC would allow retailers to recoup some of those fees and many seem willing to take their chances with the QR-code based payments system tied to customer bank accounts.
