Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), the mobile commerce joint venture put together by some of America's biggest retailers, has selected FIS for the provision of payment processing, routing and settlement.
Last year merchants - including 7-Eleven, Target and Wal-mart - decided to develop their own mobile system, contending that they could do better than the crowded field of banks, telcos and technology companies already in the ring.
In April MCX revealed that French vendor Gemalto will build the barcode-based mobile wallet software and the consortium has now picked FIS' payments network infrastructure to authorise and execute transactions in real-time.
Nancy Langer, EVP, money movement, FIS, says: "We're pleased MCX has chosen to leverage FIS' payments network technology to deliver a seamless mobile commerce experience for millions of U.S. consumers that shop at these nationwide merchants."
Meawnhile, two of America's biggest 100 merchants by revenue, department store giant Kohl's and convenience store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard, have both joined the project.
MCX hopes to fend off stiff mobile money competition from the likes of Google, PayPal, Square and the Isis consortium of telcos by tapping into its huge network of stores.
Once it is fully deployed, the wallet will be accepted at all MCX members, an unparalleled, growing group of merchants that collectively operate nearly 90,000 stores and process more than $1 trillion in payments annually.
Dodd Roberts, executive, MCX says: "A growing list of America's favourite brands, including Kohl's, Southwest Airlines, Chili's Grill & Bar, and so many others, along with our elite technology partners, FIS and Gemalto, are the latest signs of strong momentum as MCX brings a widely accepted, securely delivered and customer-focused mobile payment solution to the marketplace."