Samsung launches mobile payments service in India

Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of its flagship mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, in India. Simple and Secure, Samsung Pay can be used to make purchases almost everywhere you can swipe or tap your debit or credit card to make payments.

Samsung Pay has integrated Paytm as well as the government’s Unified Payments Interface into the app. Samsung has also created a unique digital payment ecosystem by partnering with a number of issuers and card networks like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Card and Standard Chartered Bank. Citibank India is a forthcoming issuer and its credit cards will be live on Samsung Pay shortly. Samsung Pay is a highly secure platform as it works with three levels of security – fingerprint authentication, card tokenization and Samsung’s defence-grade mobile security platform Samsung KNOX.

Samsung Pay works with Samsung’s patented Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology as well as with Near Field Communication (NFC). MST replicates a card swipe by wirelessly transmitting magnetic waves from the supported Samsung device to a standard card reader. Through MST, Samsung Pay will work seamlessly on a majority of Point-of-Sale terminals in India.

HC Hong, President & CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said, “Samsung Pay is an example of how we continue to push the boundaries of innovations to make life simpler and better for consumers. I am confident Samsung Pay will redefine digital payments and contribute to Digital India.”

“When we launched Samsung Pay, our goal was to enable consumers across the globe to make payments that are simple, secure and accepted almost everywhere. Over the past year and a half, this vision has evolved into building a complete digital wallet solution, allowing customers worldwide to not only make payments but also use membership and transit cards, receive deals and rewards and more,” said Thomas Ko, Global GM of Samsung Pay.

With its “Make-for-India” initiative, Samsung is committed to building tailored products and services, customized to meet the needs of Indian consumers. Samsung Pay provides a mobile payment option built natively on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), a payment system launched by the National Payments Corporation of India. The Samsung Pay UPI solution is powered by Axis Bank and facilitates peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer of funds between bank accounts on a mobile platform instantly. This is an upcoming feature within Samsung Pay.

Samsung Pay also allows Indian consumers to integrate their Paytm accounts into Samsung Pay, enabling them to pay by scanning QR codes securely, generating one-time codes for merchant payments and also do peer-to-peer money transfers.

Samsung Pay will also be available on the Samsung Gear S3 Smartwatch shortly, allowing users to pay through their wearable device.

Samsung Pay is currently available on Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017).

Samsung Pay has rapidly expanded both the variety and availability of value-added services in multiple markets worldwide, adding support for various non-banking cards, including gift card, membership, transportation and ATM to consumers.

Samsung Pay further supports a growing number of services relevant to each local market such as identity cards and barcode payment, with many more value-added services yet to come.