JPMorgan Chase is ditching its standalone Chase Pay app, instead focusing on integrating the technology into merchant apps and websites.
The QR code-based Chase Pay app will shut down early next year, bringing an end to a multi-year effort, involving north of $100 million in investment, that has delivered minimal returns.
Chase unveiled its QR-code based app (inherited from failed retailer programme Current-C) in 2015 as it sought to fight back against tech giants Apple, Google and Samsung in a crowded mobile money arena.
Last year the bank tried to revive the app by striking a deal to enable customers to use Samsung Pay’s Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology, along with NFC, to pay with Chase Pay - bringing the service to far more merchants.
However, the bank has now decided to focus on letting customers use the feature within merchant apps and websites that integrate a Chase Pay button. Grubhub has signed on.
Eric Connolly, head, Chase Pay, says: "We continue to focus on our customers and they are using the Chase Pay button on merchant websites and in merchant apps, and now their tap-to-pay Chase cards more than ever. So, we’re shifting our focus to expand Chase Pay’s presence in more merchant apps and websites."
In June, JPMorgan Chase confirmed that it was shutting down Finn, the mobile-only banking offshoot aimed at millennials, just a year after its nationwide launch.