Samsung is rolling out Samsung Pay in its first European market, Spain:
In Spain, the service is already available for customers of CaixaBank and ImaginBank, and soon expected to be available for Abanca and Banco Sabadell customers. Globally, Samsung said Pay supports credit and debit cards from more than 200 major global and regional banks. In addition, Samsung Pay is compatible with payments networks, including American Express, China UnionPay, MasterCard and Visa, as well as China’s third-party payments platform, Alipay.
This will be an important launch to understand how mobile wallets will fare in Europe. So far, Apple Pay has done fine, but not spectacularly to attract users. Europe generally has a high concentration of smart phone owners so expectations are high for a successful launch:
“Our goal with Samsung Pay is to drive and lead innovation in mobile commerce, giving consumers a safer, smarter and better mobile wallet,” said Victor Kim, Samsung Pay’s global director.
“The opportunity for Samsung Pay in Spain is significant, due to the high smartphone penetration rate and the digitalization of the banking sector,” added Celestino Garcia, Samsung Spain’s VP
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
Read the full story here