Ze Tvv(I)n Posted August 14, 2015 Posted August 14, 2015 Samsung has started rolling out Samsung Pay in the US and South Korea, and has announced that the UK will be the first country to get the new mobile payment system when it arrives in Europe. First announced at Mobile World Congress, Samsung Pay is the company's answer to Apple Pay, which launched in the UK in July, and Google's Android Pay, which will launch later this year. The announcement came as Samsung announced two new phones, the Galaxy S6+ and Note 5. Samsung Pay is based on technology developed by start-up LoopPay, which Samsung acquired in February. Unlike the other two solutions, which rely on the merchant having a payment terminal equipped with NFC (near-field communication) technology, Samsung Pay allows users to pay for items using their mobile phones, even if the terminal is not NFC-enabled. This is because, as well as supporting NFC, Samsung Pay uses a new technology called MST (magnetic secure transmission), which allows the user to make a payment by touching their phone to the magstripe reader. Most payment terminals worldwide are still equipped with legacy magstripe readers, to provide a backup to Chip and PIN, and in the US, "swiping" is still the primary method of making a payment. "The major appeal of that is there is no major upgrade required from the merchant, and because of this, it pretty much ensures the user can use Samsung Pay at any merchant that has an NFC reader or a legacy reader," said Samsung Pay director, Victor Kim. "I like to think of it as the 'belt and suspenders' approach to mobile payments. 2
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