Buoyed by a strong start in Korea, consumer electronics giant Samsung has launched its mobile payments service in the US, with support from the three major card schemes and banking giants Citi, Bank of America and US Bank.
Available on Galaxy S6, S6 edge, Note5 and S6 edge+ devices operating on the AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular networks, Samsung Pay uses digital tokenisation, Samsung Knox, and fingerprint authentication to provide secure payments across both mag-stripe and contactless terminals.
The US launch comes one month after Samsung Pay arrived in Korea, notching an impressive $30 million in transactions since debut. Samsung will be looking to replicate the market penetration achieved in Korea as it takes on Apple Pay on its home turf.
To participate initially, consumers need to have a MasterCard, Visa or American Express card issued by Bank of America, Citi, American Express or US Bank.
“Being one of the first to offer our cardmembers and merchant customers Samsung Pay is a great example of our focus on our customers,” says Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer at US Bank. “This is an important step in the continuing evolution of payments and consistent with providing our customers the convenience of doing business with us how, when and where they want."
Samsung Pay also offers merchant credit cards through its relationship with Synchrony Financial and additionally, works with acquirers including First Data, Global Payments and Tsys.