Wal-Mart, Target Among Merchants Planning Their Own Mobile Wallet

A group of merchants including such big names as Wal-Mart Stores and Target is preparing to launch its own mobile payments play, the Wall Street Journal reports.

More than a dozen companies are prepared to announce the joint development of a new mobile payments network called the the Merchant Customer Exchange. A launch date hasn’t been set, the Journal says, nor has a CEO been named. But the report does confirm that this new ventue is designed to “battle similar services from Google Inc. and other companies.”

Best Buy, Lowe’s, CVS Caremark, Royal Dutch Shell, Sunoco, Sears, Darden Restaurants and 7-Eleven are also part of the group of fourteen merchants preparing to launch their own mobile payments platform. 

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