It is now possible to use Samsung Pay with cards that are issued by South Korean card companies as cards to be used in foreign countries at merchants in foreign countries. China and the U.S. are the destinations.
According to IT industry and financial industry on the 20th, Samsung Electronics is going to finish linking foreign payment system with KB Card, Samsung Card, Lotte Card, and Hana Card and start Samsung Pay service at foreign merchants at the end of this month. Starting from now on, customers who have KB, Samsung, Lotte, and Hana Cards will make payments using Samsung Pay in all Chinese and American regions.
These 4 card companies have negotiated with global card companies such as Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay, JBC and others for Samsung Electronics and Samsung Pay’s foreign payment. They recently have led those global card companies to agree on linking payment net work and are currently in the last stage of negotiation with American Express.
For the 1st stage, they are going to start Samsung Pay service at the end of this month in China and the U.S. Because more than 80% of local merchants are using MST (Magnetic Security Transmission) payment infrastructures, Samsung Pay can be used without having to build separate infrastructures. During the 2nd stage, they are going to expand Samsung Pay towards Europe and Southeast Asia.
It took almost 3 months of developer period for payment linkage and conversion of fixed token with international card companies.
“It is a meaningful incident that card companies and a manufacturer are entering foreign business together for the first time.” said a representative of a partnering card company. “A fact that a method that is being used in South Korea is directly applied in foreign countries shows that South Korea’s payment processing technologies will work in mobile payment markets in the future.”
Although initially KB Card was the only one that was pushing for Samsung Pay’s foreign payment, Samsung Card, Lotte Card, and Hana Card have participated to enter foreign payment markets together.
Through Samsung Pay’s foreign payment, Samsung Electronics and card companies are planning to expand biometrics (fingerprint) certification, which is a certification technology of Samsung Pay. They are expecting that it will play a huge role in standardizing FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) certification and applying it in foreign countries in long-term.
It is expected that having global card companies such as Visa and others as partners will bring great synergy in establishing mobile payment markets in the future. This is the first time when payment network that is identical to a card is used on Smartphone-based mobile payment platform is taking place in foreign countries. In reality, partnering up with monopolistic businesses such as Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay and others means that it is now possible to use Samsung Pay in all merchants in foreign countries. Although final negotiation with American Express is still on hold, Samsung Pay is the only mobile payment platform that was able to partner up with all international card companies.
Staff Reporter Gil, Jaesik | osolgil@etnews.com (specializes in financial industry)
