The mobile payments NFC Joint Venture Initiative by AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Discover has taken a major step back. Their initial plans to build a new NFC payment network will now be scaled back to merely a mobile wallet solution which will allow payments through VISA and MasterCard.
Looks like this setback is courtesy of the US retailers who are not willing to install any new systems at their registers unless their customers can use VISA and MAC to make their purchases. Discover is simply not big enough to draw any interest. Thus the downgrade to a mobile wallet by the partners puts them in competition with the numerous other competitors offering mobile wallets in the space.
The irony of it all is the love-hate relationship with US retailers and VISA/MAC. The retailers hate paying the fees for both credit and debit cards (Durbin Amendment still looming) but know that they must comply to keep selling. So it looks like mobile payments will not likely break the stronghold of the big boys and that the message was delivered by the US retailers themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment