CurrentC, the mobile payments service developed by Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), will reportedly enter a limited public trial in selected stores during August.

A spokeswoman from MCX-member, Lowe’s Cos., told Bloomberg that MCX intends to roll out its CurrentC app during the third quarter of 2015. She added that Lowe’s will not take part in the initial rollout.

When asked for comment, MCX’s chief operating officer, Scott Rankin, told Bloomberg that only that MCX will start public testing of CurrentC this year. He maintained that the company was “making good progress” on releasing CurrentC to the public.

“We expect there to be more than one successful player in mobile payments, and we expect to be one of them,” Rankin told Bloomberg in an email.

MCX was formed in 2012 with backing from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. and counts among its members a host of retailers, including Sears Holdings Corp., CVS Health Corp., Best Buy Co. Inc., and restaurant chains Wendy’s Co., Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc.

Major retailers ostensibly backed CurrentC as a way to reduce transaction fees charged by credit card companies, as well as having the ability to gather and retain customer data for marketing purposes – something third-party mobile payments solutions make impossible by either not sharing this info with retailers on not gathering it in the first place.

Tough market

CurrentC faces some hurdles. First of all, the payments service will have to gain consumers’ trust following reports that it was hacked in October last year. Secondly, it does not have agreements in place with major credit card issuers like Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., meaning customers using the CurrentC app will be limited to linking private-label store cards and their checking accounts to the service.

In addition to these hurdles, CurrentC, having taken nearly three years to get to market, faces stiff competition. Apple Pay, after entering the market in October last year, has gained significant traction and has recently expanded to the U.K. and has Canada in its sights for later this year.

Google has redoubled its mobile wallet efforts with the introduction of Android Pay, due for release alongside the next version of Android later this year and, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has entered the space with Samsung Pay following its acquisition of LoopPay earlier this year.

On top of all this, MCX may see member retailers start accepting third-party mobile payments services. According the Bloomberg’s sources, a three-year exclusivity agreement MCX signed with members is coming to an end in August.

Best Buy announced in April that it would accept Apple Pay by the end of this year.

Image credit: Ron Warholic, Flickr, CC BY 2.0