MasterCard Backs Samsung Pay

As consumers increasingly trade cash to use their cards through connected devices, Samsung is enabling a wider audience to take advantage of digital commerce. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a leading global technology company, has unveiled Samsung Pay, a mobile payment service that will enable MasterCard cardholders to use their Samsung Galaxy S6 for everyday in-store purchases.

MasterCard built the foundation for secure digital transactions, so consumers can use their cards when, where and how they want. Samsung Pay delivers a seamless and secure mobile payment experience that will work at both contactless-enabled and most traditional point of sale terminals. 

For consumers and merchants alike, that means that every purchase made with a MasterCard using a Samsung Galaxy S6 will offer the enhanced security, benefits and guarantees of a digital MasterCard transaction including the latest tokenization technology. Owners of the new device will be able to use their MasterCard credit and debit cards from participating banks directly through Samsung Pay.

“This is an exciting time for payments,” said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard. “As consumers are increasingly relying on their mobile devices in their everyday lives, we are excited to work with an industry leader like Samsung to deliver new payment options to our cardholders around the world. We have been a pioneer of mobile commerce innovation for years and together we’re delivering a digital payment experience that is both simple and secure.”

“From the start, Samsung’s vision for mobile payments and commerce has been centered on security, wide acceptance, and a simple user experience. With MasterCard’s tokenization services in conjunction with Samsung’s unique MST (magnetic secure transmission) and NFC technologies, Samsung Pay makes secure contactless mobile payments possible at most NFC or traditional magnetic POS terminals,” says Dr. Injong Rhee, Executive Vice President at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung’s KNOX security platform and fingerprint authentication make Samsung Pay transactions highly secure and easy to use.”

The MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) enables MasterCard consumer credit and debit cardholders to use Samsung Pay. In building a secure payment experience, Samsung Pay leverages industry-standard cryptography based protections to ensure transactions can take full advantage of one of the most secure payments technologies in the world. In order to further protect consumers, Samsung Pay transactions also incorporate additional security features including tokenization via MDES and fingerprint or passcode payment authorization.

Samsung Pay will first be made available for U.S. consumers this summer. MasterCard will be working with Samsung to roll out Samsung Pay to additional global markets including Korea.