Samsung Electronics on Wednesday launched its flagship mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, a platform that can be used to make purchases almost everywhere by swiping or tapping a debit or credit card to make payments.

The company has registered cards and has integrated Paytm as well as the government’s unified payments interface (UPIs) into the app. Samsung has also created a unique digital payment ecosystem by partnering with a number of issuers and card networks. Some of the partners include 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, the company said.

“Our insights show that convenience, security and acceptance are seen by consumers as the most important influencers when choosing different digital payment options. With Samsung Pay, we give our consumers the smartest way to make digital transactions by far,” Asim Warsi, Senior Vice-President, Mobile Business, Samsung India said.

Samsung Pay is highly secured through the signature Knox platform, fingerprint authentication and tokenisation, he said. To launch Samsung Pay, a user needs to swipe on an eligible Samsung Galaxy smartphone, select the card, authenticate using a fingerprint or PIN and bring the phone near the point of sale (PoS) terminal.

"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 works seamlessly on 95 per cent of PoS terminals in India," Warsi said.

In India, in particular, most retail shops already have regular POS machines with magnetic card readers, which are compatible with MST technology, making Samsung Pay particularly suited to the India market, he added.

However, Samsung Pay will be available to only a few handsets and that too in the premium segment (priced above Rs 20,000) including Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017).

Since its launch in July 2015, Samsung Pay has rapidly expanded its service by supporting additional value-added features in multiple markets worldwide. With its launch in India, Samsung Pay is fully available in 12 global markets, including South Korea, the US, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia, the company said.

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

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