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“Samsung Pay will reinvent how people pay for goods and services and transform how they use their smartphones. The secure and simple payment process, coupled with our robust partner network, makes Samsung Pay a truly game-changing service that will bring value to consumers and our partners in the ecosystem.”

CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics JK Shin, commenting on the launch of Samsung Pay on March 1st 2015

Samsung, it seems, was on a roll at Barcelona, Spain at the recently concluded MWC (Mobile World Conference) 2015.

They launched the dual twin towers Octa-Core Processor Google Androidc5.0 Lollipop wonder that is the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge on the Sunday 1st Match 2015, their answer to the Apple iPhone 6 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus as reported in my article Samsung Galaxy S6 and Edge at MWC 2015 coming to Mash up Jamaica.

This was even before the big extravaganza kicked off on Monday March 2nd 2025. But they also announced their answer to Apple Pay called, quite aptly Samsung Pay.

Samsung Pay will utilize both the NFC (Near Field Communication) and a new proprietary technology called MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) that comes baked into their Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

Samsung Pay will initially be available in the United States and Korea this summer of 2015. Expansion to other regions such as Europe and China with Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge will eventually follow through the rest of 2015.

Future Samsung smartphone will come with NFC and MST making it possible for Samsung customers to use their Smartphone at nearly 30 million merchant locations worldwide regardless of whether they support the traditional Magstrip or use the newer technologies.

Samsung Pay – Support for NFC and MST means more Merchant in more places can accept Samsung Pay

This built-in acceptance will help to reduce the current low level of acceptance of such Mobile Wallet solutions such as Google Pay. MST technology enables Samsung Pay to support PLCC (private label credit cards) and thus more Credit and Prepaid Debit Cards, thanks to the kind cooperation of key partners Synchrony Financial and First Data Corporation.

Margaret Keane, President and CEO of Synchrony Financial, the largest provider of private label credit cards in the U.S. seemed to think this was the next greatest thing since sliced bread seeing as no upgrade to existing POS (Point of Sale) Terminals is needed, quote: “This is great news for our customers who can access their cards and make payments using Samsung Pay and great news for our retailers who won’t have to upgrade their point of sale terminals. We look forward to working with Samsung and others to deliver secure mobile payments for our 60 million active accounts.”

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As part of that drive, Samsung has partnered with MasterCard and Visa and has expanded their global reach to the following American banking partners with a global reach:

  • American Express
  • Bank of America
  • Citi
  • JPMorgan Chase
  • S. Bank

MasterCard and Visa were thrilled to be partners with Samsung on their quest to beat Apple at their own game, to quote Executive Vice President, Visa Inc. Jim McCarthy, quote: “Mobile commerce just got a lot more interesting. Combining Visa’s expertise in payment technology with Samsung’s leadership in creating innovative mobile experiences, gives more choice to financial institutions who want to enable their customers to pay by phone.”

Bank of America seemed quite eager to use their 7 million mobile customers as guinea Pigs to test out Samsung Pay to quote CEO, Chairman and Director of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan: “We are committed to making interactions easier in the financial lives of our customers. Samsung Pay is another significant move in that direction for our 17 million mobile customers”.

Overall, these partnerships with merchants, issuing banks and major payment networks allows customers the ability to use a wide range of Cards pre-loaded into their Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6. This makes Samsung Pay almost like a universal Wallet, unlike Apple Pay which openly supports NFC, a technology used by some 300,000 Retail Merchants.

So what other advantages does Samsung Pay have over Apple Pay, aside from being more ubiquitous and having potentially a higher level of proliferation due to the use of MST?

Samsung Pay – Leveraging the Power of KNOX with Find My Mobile and secure fingerprint scanner

Samsung Pay is made more secure via the presence of Samsung KNOX, which is not only a secure overlay on Google android 5.0 Lollipop that helps to create secure VPN (Virtual Private Network) for loud Based applications as described in AnyConnect for Samsung Knox is a Cisco Systems partnership for Secure VPN Communications but also secure apps and transactions on your smartphone.

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Samsung Pay, like Apple Pay, also uses tokenization, meaning simply that your Credit Card information is transmitted as a secure and heavily encrypted one use token. No data from the transaction or Credit Card numbers are stored on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge or their transaction servers, making it pointless for anyone to steal your smartphone.

However, you can still access an itemized list of your purchases, suggesting your purchase is stored somewhere. Albeit not your Credit or Prepaid Debit Card information, it still isn’t that easy to aces, requiring someone to actual enter your Credit Card information on that particular Device or on a computer terminal accessing a web based platform to bring up your account transaction information.

Plus the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge comes with Find My Mobile feature that allows you to remotely lock down your smartphone and locate it in the event it gets lost or stolen.

Hopefully Samsung Pay will also come in the form of NFC and MST Stickers, making it possible for non-Samsung users to implement a Samsung Pay Transaction without having to have a Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

Instead of having a Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, all they’d have to do is just place a sticker on their smartphone and poses the capability to do transactions, being as the Credit Card information can be entered via as Web interface and the Credit info isn’t stored in the NFC/MST sticker.

Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is coming to Jamaica at the Samsung Experience Store by Thursday April 16th 2015.

With the Summer of 2015 is only four (4) months away, it is up to Jet-set Jamaicans with money to burn to decide if Samsung Pay on a Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is a Mobile Wallet they’d use when travelling abroad, since it might not be supported by local Banks here in Jamaica!

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