Samsung Pay Launches In US On Sept 28

SEOUL, Korea -- Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. launched Samsung Pay in Korea on Aug. 20 and will debut the mobile payment system in the U.S. on Sept. 28. Samsung also plans to roll out the service in the U.K., Spain and China.

Samsung unveiled its newest devices -- the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 -- at an event in New York City.

"With the launches of these exciting new smartphones, we will open a new era of mobile payment," said JK Shin, Samsung Electronics chief executive and head of the company's IT and mobile communications division. "You can swipe a card, in most cases without new costs for merchants, from day one. This is Samsung's brave step forward to enhance our mobile experience. It is easy, safe and most importantly, available virtually anywhere."

Samsung Pay will be preloaded on select Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 devices and a free software upgrade will be rolled out beginning mid-August, to enable Samsung Pay on Galaxy S6 and S6 edge devices in the U.S. and Korea. Select U.S. users of the smartphones will be able to participate in a beta trial from Aug. 25 ahead of the Sept. 28 launch.

To make a payment on Samsung Pay, users simply swipe up, scan their fingerprint and pay.

Samsung Pay uses tokenization, the Samsung Knox security system, and fingerprint authentication to reduce the security risks inherent to plastic cards.

With Magnetic Secure Transmission and Near Field Communication technologies, Samsung Pay works with most existing point-of-sale terminals.

"The future of mobile payments has arrived," said Samsung Electronics executive vice-president and global head of Samsung Pay InJong Rhee. "We are partnering with card networks, issuers and acquirers, and Samsung Pay will also be the first to support contactless payment for store-branded credit cards. The list of partners will only grow."

Samsung said it anticipates working with payment networks such as, American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa, major banks including Bank of America, Chase, U.S. Bank and key financial partners including First Data, Synchrony Financial and TSYS to extend Samsung Pay to the U.S.