Dive Brief:

• The CEO of Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, the consortium of retailers developing their own mobile payment system to compete with Apple Pay, Dekkers Davidson, is stepping down, the consortium said Tuesday.

• His departure comes a day after Best Buy announced it would accept Apple Pay, breaking a pact the group had made to eschew the increasingly popular mobile system in favor of its own, CurrentC, which has yet to launch.

• The company said the events are unrelated. But CurrentC has been slow to arrive, had security issues at the outset, and has been clouded by competing assertions and denials that the group’s members were forced to refuse Apple Pay.

Dive Insight:

MCX was launched four years ago, led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to develop a mobile payment product that we now know as CurrentC. The MCX coalition includes more than 50 retailers, including (besides Wal-Mart), 7-Eleven, Best Buy, CVS, Rite Aid, Lowe’s, Michaels, Sears, Gap, and Target. Last fall, Wal-Mart Stores, Best Buy, CVS, and Rite Aid had all said they wouldn’t accept Apple Pay, and rumor had it that MCX retailers were obligated to have that policy, something Davidson later walked back.

But the system — what we know of it before its launch — isn’t designed with consumers at top of mind. It uses checking accounts or pre-loaded cash rather than credit cards — to avoid those hated bank fees — thereby limiting customers’ payment choices on their phones. ​Its terms of service reportedly push liability for fraud onto the user. 

So it’s no surprise that Best Buy would bail out of its initial dedication to CurrentC and begin to accept Apple Pay. After all, an increasing number of its customers want to hand over their money that way, and, meanwhile, CurrentC isn't yet anywhere near their phones.