Samsung Pay Gets Big Support On Day One

Samsung Pay officially launched into the U.S. mobile payments market yesterday (Sept. 28) and secured support from the payments ecosystem on day one.

Initial partners include the major credit card networks — Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express — and some big issuers, including Bank of America, Chase and U.S. Bank. Samsung Pay uses digital tokenization, Samsung KNOX and fingerprint authentication to provide secure payments. The mobile payment service is compatible with most existing and new terminals, including most magnetic stripe, EMV and NFC terminals.

TSYS was among the major companies that showed its support for Samsung Pay by offering its TSYS clients — both issuing banks and acquirers — and their merchants the mobile payments option.

“At a time when more consumers are looking for safe, simple and widely accepted mobile payment solutions, we’re thrilled to join with Samsung Pay to bring this groundbreaking technology to life,” said Craig Ludwig, head of product for TSYS’ merchant services segment. “We look forward to supporting our clients as they offer secure and convenient mobile payment acceptance for their customers.”

“TSYS is a valued partner to help Samsung bring mobile payment from every-once-in-a-while to almost anywhere,” said Injong Rhee, EVP of Samsung Electronics and global head of Samsung Pay. “With Samsung Pay, customers can shop like it’s yesterday and pay like it’s tomorrow. They can use the only mobile payment option that works almost anywhere you can swipe or tap your card today.”

For consumers wanting to use Samsung Pay, they will need a participating MasterCard, Visa or American Express card issued by Bank of America, Citi, American Express or U.S. Bank. 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.

But the big difference with Samsung Pay, of course, is its MST technology, which enables Samsung Pay acceptance at just about every terminal that today accepts any mag stripe or EMV card without merchants having to change anything at their points of sale to accept payments made using it.

“Samsung Pay works with almost any card terminal from day one, and Galaxy owners can shop with a wallet they never knew was always in their hands,” Rhee said in a company news release. “As the leader in innovation, Samsung is proud to introduce the first mobile payment solution that allows you to pay almost anywhere you can swipe or tap your card today.”

Samsung Pay will work on Galaxy S6, S6 edge, Note5 and S6 edge+ devices operating on the AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Cellular networks in the United States. 

“The addition of Samsung Pay is another great step for Global Payments in bringing innovative commerce to our U.S. merchants,” said Frank Young, SVP of global product and innovation for Global Payments. “We are delighted to offer another form of mobile payment acceptance to the broadest set of our merchants.”

Samsung Pay will also be accepted across First Data’s point-of-sale devices, including the Clover devices. First Data’s STAR Network, an independent debit network, will also support Samsung Pay.

“First Data continues to lead the way in enabling mobile commerce globally,” said Barry McCarthy, executive vice president and head of network and security solutions at First Data. “With the launch of Samsung Pay, we are extending our innovative technology to ensure that, as consumers increasingly move to digital payments, First Data can enable any card in any digital wallet.”

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