Samsung today announced its mobile payment service in India dubbed “Samsung Pay”. The new service will allow users in India to tap and pay for goods and services while their cards are registered on various devices that are compatible. The service will be available across Samsung devices such as Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A7 (2016) and Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2017) and  Galaxy A5 (2017) and their latest wearable smartwatch, The Galaxy Gear S3.

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Samsung has collaborated with various partners to make this feat possible. It has tied up with a number of card issuers and networks such as Visa, MasterCard, HDFC, American Express, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Card, Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank. Users can also add mobile wallets such as Paytm as well as the government’s Unified Payments Interface.

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Samsun Pay utilises MST (magnetic secure transmission) and NFC to make these wireless payments possible in India. A user simply has to tap any of the above-mentioned devices to the payment terminal, use the fingerprint scanner for authentication and then enter the pin to complete any transaction. There are plenty of mobile terminals in India that support NFC transactions however it remains to be seen how the technology will manifest across India amongst sellers and buyers.