Chase Announces Chase Pay, Its Own Digital Wallet

The new app comes on the heels of Capital One’s digital wallet launch and as mobile technology companies ranging from Apple to Google and Samsung are hastily building and deploying their own mobile wallets.

Unlike Apple Pay and Android Pay, Chase Pay is eschewing NFC technology for instore payments in favour of a QR code-based system, which the bank says makes it easier and cheaper for merchants to roll out.

Gordon Smith, CEO, consumer and community banking, JPMorgan Chase & Co, says: “Chase Pay solves a number of pain points for consumers and merchants”. The video also shows a diner paying at a restaurant by taking a photo of the bill.

To get Chase Pay into more retail stores, the company will be partnering with MCX, the consortium that has recently faced more than its fair share of struggles thanks to increasing competition from Apple Pay. Those businesses include Kohl’s, Chili’s, Sunoco and Best Buy.

Chase Pay is the result of a new partnership between JPMorgan Chase and MCX, a conglomerate of major retailers that has so far failed to gain much traction in digital payments.

Retailers included in the Merchant Customer Exchange ring up more than $1 trillion of sales per year and have over 100,000 outlets.

The new service will pit Chase Pay against new digital wallets from Apple, Google and Samsung vying to replace the swipe of a payment card with the tap of a phone.

There’s one notable difference between Chase Pay and Apple Pay. The study found that 64 percent of smartphone payment app users, or those interested in trying them, would consider downloading a bank’s payment app. Only about half that number said they would consider trying Apple Pay or Android Pay.

Most importantly in winning over MCX merchants, Chase is promising fixed pricing, with no extra fees – zero dollar network fees, merchant processing fees and fraud liability. Chase Pay will launch “about the middle of 2016”, Smith said.

Chase will pre-populate customer Chase Pay accounts with the Chase debit or credit card that the customer uses the most frequently.