Bank wallets continue to gain ground and add functionality the tech giants will have trouble replicating.
Capital One led the way by enabling POS transactions from its mobile app, and JPMorgan Chase followed up with an announcement of Chase Pay, expected in mid-2016.
But today BBVA Compass announced the realtime redemption of rewards — see it in action (in cartoon form) in the video below. This is not simply replicating what Apple Pay et al can do — it is something only banks (or merchants using closed-loop cards) can do. This technology is not related to BBVA Compass’s realtime core.
The bank claims it is the first to offer this functionality. This could prove to be a crucial advantage of bank wallets — direct access to transactions and the ability to instantly put rewards in a user’s account. Note that the BBVA Compass app does not (yet) have the ability to transmit payment credentials at the point of sale.
The new functionality is available in the updated BBVA Wallet app, available on iOS and Android.
