Samsung Electronics has launched its flagship mobile payments service dubbed ‘Samsung Pay’ in India. The first commercial transaction of Samsung Pay in India was carried out in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Mr. Amitabh Kant and Samsung Southwest Asia President and CEO Mr. HC Hong in front of a capacity audience that included key banking and card networks executives.
Samsung Pay allows users in India to tap and ‘pay on the go’ using their registered cards. Samsung has also integrated digital wallet Paytm as well as the government’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) into its Samsung Pay app.
Payments through Samsung Pay can be accepted at all places where a physical card will work. To launch Samsung Pay, customers should swipe up on a compatible phone, select the card, authenticate using a fingerprint or PIN and bring the phone close to the PoS terminal.
Samsung Pay works with Samsung’s Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology as well as with NFC. Since a majority of PoS terminals in India are MST enabled, they will work with Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay will also be available on the Samsung Gear S3 Smartwatch shortly, allowing users to pay with just the movement of their hand.
Following its launch in India, Samsung Pay is now available in 12 global markets, including South Korea, the US, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia.
Samsung Pay has created a digital payment ecosystem by partnering with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank. Citibank India is a forthcoming issuer and its credit cards will be live on Samsung Pay shortly.
