Mastercard moves India one step closer to ‘cashless society’ with Samsung Pay

Mastercard, together with Samsung India officially announced the launch of Samsung Pay in India. Samsung Pay will enable Mastercard cardholders to use their supporting Samsung Galaxy mobile devices to pay in a safe, convenient and smart manner. Mastercard is working closely with partner banks including Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Bank and Standard Chartered Bank to bring this new service to cardholders in India.

After a successful roll out in various countries, Samsung Pay was launched in India today. Samsung Pay is a simple, secure and convenient mobile payments solution that works virtually anywhere you can swipe or tap a card. This allows customers to pay with their debit or credit card using compatible Samsung Galaxy devices.

The Indian government is making considerable efforts to transition India into a cashless society through the implementation and acceleration of e-payments adoption. The collaboration is therefore timely as the industry strives to deliver newer innovations to cater to the rapidly evolving mobile payments space.

The Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) enables Mastercard credit and debit cardholders from participating banks to use Samsung Pay. This platform transforms Samsung mobile devices into commercial devices that are able to make contactless transactions, providing a secure, convenient and smart payment experience for users. Every purchase made with a Mastercard using Samsung Pay offers consumers and retailers all the benefits and guarantees of a transaction with the physical Mastercard card.

To make payments using their Mastercard card, consumers choose their preferred Mastercard credit or debit card when accessing Samsung Pay, scan their fingerprint and tap their device on a contactless terminal to complete a purchase. To reward cardholders, Mastercard will provide exclusive benefits and loyalty perks to Mastercard cardholders when they make payments using Samsung Pay at Café Coffee Day, Barista and Pizza Hut.

HC Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said, “We are happy to partner with Mastercard and other leading financial institutions and merchants to introduce Samsung Pay as a simple, convenient and secure payment method in India. With a push towards adoption of digital payments, we are excited to support and enhance the acceptance of smart phones towards advancing India’s payments industry.”

Porush Singh, Country Corporate Officer, India, and Division President, South Asia, Mastercard, said, “As our society becomes increasingly reliant on mobile devices in their everyday lives, it is crucial for us to partner like-minded organizations who share the same goal of delivering seamless payment experiences to consumers, merchants and others in the payments ecosystem. Today’s announcement brings us a step forward in the Indian government’s cashless payments roadmap. We’re excited to partner an industry leader such as Samsung to provide a digital payment experience that is both simple and secure for cardholders in India.”

With the launch of Samsung Pay in the country, India adds to the growing list of countries where Mastercard has collaborated with Samsung to bring Samsung Pay to cardholders. To date, cardholders in the markets of Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States can enjoy safe, secure and seamless transactions with their Samsung mobile devices.

“Our insights show that convenience, security and acceptance are seen by consumers as the most important influencers when choosing among different digital payment options,” said Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India. “With Samsung Pay, we give our consumers the smartest way to make digital transactions by far. Samsung Pay is highly secure through the signature KNOX Platform, fingerprint authentication and tokenization. We have partnered with major banks and payment networks to give our consumers the widest range of choices, and are working on bringing more and more partners on board soon.”

Samsung Pay will be made available in India on select Galaxy devices including Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, S6 edge+, Note5, Galaxy A5 (2017 and 2016) and A7 (2017 and 2016).

For more information about Samsung Pay: www.samsung.com/in/samsung-pay