The mobile wallet landscape continues to evolve. In the almost three years since the release of Apple Pay, we have seen other handset manufacturers and a mobile iOS provider release mobile wallets of their own. We have also seen several merchants, issuers and brands throw their hats in the mobile wallet game. Meanwhile, we have also seen a few other potential mobile wallet providers withdraw their solutions from the marketplace. Financial institutions continue to try their best to keep up with the ever-changing landscape so they can develop and adopt digital strategies that allow them to keep their payment products in the game.  Financial institutions have employed a wide array of strategies from wait and see to more cutting edge.  

CSCU continues to monitor the latest technologies to help credit unions better understand the varying features of mobile wallets and to give an overall picture of their position in the marketplace.  To that end, we published a CSCU thought leadership brief to help credit unions understand the varying features of mobile wallets and to provide an overall picture of their position in the marketplace.

Ultimately, the "winners" in the mobile wallet wars will be determined by adoption with issuers, merchants, and consumers. No one party will be able to dictate which mobile wallet will be used and ultimately successful. This isn't to suggest that numerous other parties and factors won't also play a role in a mobile wallet's success. Many factors and parties such as issuers and merchant processors, brands, mobile wallet developers, payment revenue expenses and overall economics, technology platforms, security and education will be equally important to determine mobile wallet winners and losers.  These forces contribute to the complexity of mobile wallet adoption.