Chase And Wal-Mart Launch Mobile Payment Apps

Banking and retail giants JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are taking on Apple Pay and Google's Android Pay with their own mobile payment apps, Bloomberg reported.

By launching its own app, Wal-Mart can avoid paying fees to accept credit cards in its stores and gain access to better data on customers' purchasing patterns. JPMorgan can also circumvent paying fees for mobile transactions made with Apple Pay, Android Pay and similar apps by pushing out its own mobile-payment services.

Meanwhile Merchant Customer Exchange -- a consortium founded in August 2012 by merchants including Wal-Mart and Target Corp. -- is testing its CurrentC app with about 200 retailers in Columbus, OH. The service is not yet available nationwide.

Check out the full Bloomberg story here.