In a rare press conference held Wednesday, the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) openly discussed a recent hack it suffered as well as plans for a national launch and also what payment forms it will accept.
Dekkers Davidson, CEO of MCX, responded to questions in a phone-in press conference.
Most questions centered on a hack that resulted in exposure of some CurrentC user email addresses along with some zip codes.
CurrentC is the mobile app that powers purchasing in MCX member stores.
Davidson was adamant that no user financial data was disclosed and that a third party was impacted by the hack. He declined to provide names.
In recent days, CurrentC and MCX have been under persistent attack by hackers but had been denied entry, he added.
Despite many questions from the press, Davidson declined to offer significant details about the email hack.
"We are challenging the status quo and when you do that, you expect to suffer attacks," he told listeners on the phone conference.
As for plans regarding CurrentC, Davidson said that it is in pilot in several locations in the U.S. at several merchants. He declined to offer specifics.
However, he did say that CurrentC will launch nationally in early 2015.
Regarding what kinds of payment forms will be accepted in CurrentC, Davidson offered some details but did not address the big question, which is will Visa and MasterCard be in the mix.
"We will support store cards, private label cards, gift cards, prepaid cards and we are working with two substantial financial institutions," he said. "Over time, we expect all cards will be welcome at CurrentC."
The MCX press conference appeared to be put together in haste. An initial email invitation was received at 3 p.m. ET Wednesday for a 3:30 p.m. press conference. That time was then changed to 3:45 p.m. The session lasted about 30 minutes.
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