OREANDA-NEWS. MasterCard cardholders in Singapore will soon be able to use Samsung Pay to make payments in a quick and secure way. Singapore is the first market in Southeast Asia to roll out Samsung Pay.

Raj Dhamodharan, group head, Digital Payments and Labs, Asia Pacific, MasterCard (third from left) with Samsung and other partners launching Samsung Pay in Singapore. Credit: Samsung Electronics Singapore.

MasterCard is working with major banks, including Citibank, DBS/POSB, OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered, to enable their customers to use their MasterCard credit or debit cards with Samsung Pay.

Starting 16 June, consumers can make a payment on Samsung Pay by simply swiping up on their compatible Samsung smartphone to bring up the last transacted MasterCard credit or debit card, scan their fingerprint and make payment. Samsung Pay is now available on selected Galaxy devices including Samsung Galaxy Note 5 4G+, S6 edge+ 4G+, S7 4G+ and S7 edge 4G+.

The MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) enables MasterCard credit and debit cardholders to use Samsung Pay. The platform helps transform Samsung mobile devices into commerce devices to make contactless transactions, building a secure payment experience for users. For consumers and retailers alike, every purchase made with a MasterCard using Samsung Pay offers all the benefits and guarantees of a transaction with the physical MasterCard card.

Deborah Heng, group head and general manager, MasterCard Singapore said, “According to the MasterCard Mobile Shopping Survey 2016, digital wallets have seen the fastest uptake amongst consumers in Singapore with a four-fold increase, compared to a year before. The availability of Samsung Pay will see consumers tapping Singapore’s comprehensive contactless payment infrastructure to make purchases simply, swiftly and safely, a phenomena that is only set to grow as Singapore’s digitally savvy population become increasingly receptive to using mobile payments for all purchases.”

“Samsung Pay is gaining quick traction in countries where it is launched and we are very excited to introduce the only mobile wallet that supports both contactless and non-contactless payment in Singapore. By working with partners like MasterCard, we are making sure that Samsung customers will be able to use Samsung Pay almost anywhere cards are accepted when the service becomes available in Singapore on 16 June,” said Thomas Ko, global co-general manager of Samsung Pay at Samsung Electronics.

Utilizing three levels of security to enable secure payments – fingerprint authentication, tokenisation and Samsung KNOX, each transaction uses an encrypted digital token to replace user’s personal payment information and payments can only be authorized with approved fingerprint or PIN. To further protect consumers, malicious software and activities on a user’s device are also monitored.