The French Version of MCX – C'est Magnifique!

United States merchants are not alone in their fight to take control of their own payment acceptance rules. France’s France’s Oney Banque Accord, the bank owned by supermarket giant Auchan, announced it has chosen to use a bar code solution for its proprietary mobile-payment product. Being marketed under the brand “Flash’n Pay”, it is the French version of Merchant Consumer Exchange in the U.S.

From NFC World:

Welcomed and supported by retailers, it is the solution that will enable the rapid roll-out of mobile payment in France. Flash’n Pay SAS opens its capital to all the players of the retail sector who wish to take part in its roll-out. The governance of Flash’n Pay SAS will be ensured uniquely by retailers.

With the mobile-wallet market getting hotter everyday, the choice for interested players boils down to two choices: either jump in now and hope your wallet rises to the top or wait and see who fails, then jump in with some kind of attention-getting differentiator. The team at MCX will be watching this rollout closely, in particular how functionally more efficient a bar code product might be over Near Field Communication mobile payments. For retailers that want to roll out a product across a larger footprint, NFC is certainly a barrier, so it is no surprise in the short term, bar code-based products are more attractive.

Auchan plans to roll out the product across its stores in April 2013, according to NFC World. That plan aligns with the earliest timeframe in which we might see some further developments on the MCX front. It is interesting to consider the potential for a global retailer-owned network to emerge out of all this, but first things first, and this is indeed a first.

Click here to read more from NFC World. Read more about Wal-Mart’s decision to support the MCX.