Sources: MCX's CurrentC mobile payment app to begin limited trial in stores next month as deals keeping Apple Pay out of stores expire
Context & Ripple Effects
This trial was the high-water mark for the merchant-led counterattack on Apple Pay: after installing former BoA Merchant Services chief Brian Mooney as CEO that spring (Brian Mooney's appointment), MCX moved CurrentC into stores while member contracts still blocked Apple's wallet. What followed is the cautionary tail on this story — the launch slipped (CurrentC may not launch until next year), the rollout was postponed with 30 layoffs as MCX pivoted to bank deals, and all CurrentC accounts were disabled when the beta ended.
First-order effects
- Member retailers face a choice their expiring contracts remove: keep backing CurrentC's QR-based app or open their terminals to Apple Pay, which needs no new consumer acquisition.
Second-order effects
- CVS answered neither option directly, launching its own CVS Pay app across four states — merchant control of the checkout persisted, just through proprietary apps instead of the consortium.
Third-order effects
- The consortium model lost outright: by 2018 Apple Pay had cleared 1B+ transactions in a quarter and was rolling out at CVS and 7-Eleven, meaning the retailers that built CurrentC to exclude Apple ended up accepting it anyway.
The trend: Retailer-owned payment consortia are being outcompeted by platform wallets, with merchants retreating from exclusive coalitions to their own branded apps before ultimately conceding NFC acceptance.