How Big Banks Are Staying In The Mobile Payments Race

Big companies like PayPal have been dominating the digital payments world for many years. And then came Apple, along with the other tech companies, like Google and Samsung.

And for years, banks have caught flack for not offering digital and mobile payments options that are up to snuff with what the tech giants have brought to market. Now, however, big banks are dusting off their old-fashioned ways and getting up to speed.

JPMorgan has been one leading the way with new connections for its Chase Pay online payments app. One example is the recent pairing with Starbucks to accept Chase Pay as a payment option in its app. Chase has also made more of an effort to put its online payment option in the same camp as PayPal’s Venmo.

What Chase realized with its QuickPay feature was that, if it was only limited to internal use, then there wouldn’t be enough room to actually scale the product. That’s why Chase has taken steps to broaden its appeal by working with merchants like Starbucks to get its online payment option integrated into other apps. Eventually, Chase made it so only one part in the transaction (either sender or receiver) had to be a Chase customer, which has enabled customers of other banks to get into the mix.

Of course, as a recent Wall Street Journal piece pointed out, there are still limits to QuickPay’s reach. And it isn’t as universally available as PayPal or Venmo. But what that piece also points out is that Chase, as do other banks, has an advantage in the mobile payments race.

Chase, because of its own payment network ChaseNet, can position itself to charge merchants less than other services. PayPal, for example, charges merchants 2.9 percent on each transaction — whether it’s online or in store. Venmo is reportedly going to do the same as it brings in-store payments into its business plan.

Chase has also promoted the fact that it can offer a lower payment processing fee to merchants who switch to ChaseNet. It also markets that, if customers use Chase Pay, merchants will also pay less for those transactions.