New Mobile Payments Network to Rival Google Wallet

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS), 7-Eleven Inc., Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN) and other well-known retailers are expected to announce that they have banded together to develop a mobile payments network that would rival similar services from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and other companies, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The network will be called the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX. It is unclear how much money each participating merchant will contribute to the network’s development, and no launch date has been set.

Few shoppers currently use their smartphones as mobile-payment devices, but industry experts expect that to change. Mobile-payment transactions are estimated to rise to $600 billion worldwide by 2016, compared to $172 billion this year, according to market research firm Gartner Inc.

And so financial institutions and technology firms are spending billions of dollars to develop what are sometimes called digital wallets. Google Wallet began operating last year on the technology company’s Android devices. Isis, a collaboration of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), T-Mobile USA Inc. and the Verizon Wireless, will start trials later this summer.

Other merchants that have signed onto the MCX venture include Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Lowe’s Companies (NYSE: LOW), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A), Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) and Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI).

Photo of Trey Thoelcke
About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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