Samsung pushes its mobile payments system

Industry

Published: 04 Mar. 2015, 21:15

Samsung pushes its mobile payments system

Samsung Electronics will partner with six local credit card companies as well as several U.S. companies to launch Samsung Pay in the second half of this year, the smartphone producer said on Wednesday.

About 10 card companies in the United States will also work with Samsung on the new mobile payment system included in the Galaxy S6 smartphones.

Samsung Group heir apparent Jay Y. Lee is making aggressive moves at home and abroad to promote the payment system along with his company’s newest smartphone line.

According to Samsung, Lee met with executives of American credit card companies in order to discuss cooperation with Samsung Pay.

The names of the U.S. companies haven’t been made public.

The world’s No.1 smartphone maker unveiled the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge along with the new mobile payment system on Sunday at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Samsung has incorporated technology from LoopPay, an American mobile payment solutions start-up that Samsung acquired in mid-February, into Samsung Pay. It is to be launched in the United States in the second half of the year.

The system works with Near Field Communication (NFC) tap-to-pay systems, authenticated with a fingerprint sensor in the phone’s home button, but also with existing magnetic stripe card readers. Systems by rivals, such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet, require the newer NFC equipment.

Samsung teamed up with MasterCard and Visa to develop the system.

The top smartphone producer is currently working on partnerships with American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank, among others, to bring the service to more users.

Samsung Pay does not store credit card numbers on users’ devices and payments are secured with Samsung’s own Knox security software, considered one of the best security systems for mobile devices, the company said.

Lee recently visited Washington, D.C., to attend a meeting of the Business Council, a group of CEOs of American manufacturers and finance institutions. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is chairman.

Lee held separate meetings with three American credit card companies to discuss cooperation with them, according to the company. Last month, Lee met with Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal to talk about investments in a financial technology project.

BY Song Su-hyun, sohn hae-yong [song.suhyun@joongang.co.kr]