LAS VEGAS – During a morning keynote speech on the closing day of Money20/20, Dekkers Davidson, CEO of the Merchant Customer Exchange's CurrentC, dropped several bombs that woke up the drowsy audience.
MCX is the Wal-Mart led initiative that is intended to create direct point of sale connections between merchants and consumers.
"450 Americans visit an MCX store at least once a week," Davidson said. He elaborated that 80+ national retailers presently are involved.
Davidson opened with a quip borrowed from Irish playwright Oscar Wilde: The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
Davidson's point was that a lot of press and social media coverage of MCX and its CurrentC mobile app has been misinformed and ignorant.
"We will have open loop credit cards included in CurrentC when we launch," he said.
That statement denounced the many claims that CurrentC will only process payments via ACH, prepaid and store brand cards.
"That's been a misconception," Davidson said.
Davidson also said that MCX intends to allow its payment tools to be built directly into bank apps, so that the consumer can pay at point of sale within that app.
"With CurrentC, consumers will have choices about how they want to pay."
Davidson also said that, for CurrentC to succeed, it has to provide personal benefits that consumers want.
"Coupons and loyalty will be built into the app. It's all in one. Consumers get the value merchants want to deliver to them," Davidson said.
Davidson stressed that a big part of CurrentC's appeal will be to the underbanked and unbanked. In that context he strenuously denied reports that enrollment in CurrentC requires a driver's license or Social Security number.
"That is not the case," Davidson said.
And, unlike Apple Pay, which operates on only one model of iPhone, Davidson said CurrentC will work on 93% of the phones in use in America.
"Consumers will determine the winners. We need humility to listen to American consumers. They will tell us how to succeed," he said.
Money20/20, considered the largest conference devoted to payments innovation, attracted 7,500 attendees to this year's event.
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