MasterCard is on board for the coming launch of Samsung Pay in Europe. In a new statement, the companies announced that cardholders will be able to enrol their cards in the mPayment service as soon as it goes live, via an expansion of the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES).
It’s a good step forward as Samsung prepares for the global rollout of its mPayment platform, which will compete against the firmly entrenched Apple Pay. But it’s also a necessary step: The company will need to get all major credit card companies as well as numerous prominent merchants onboard if it’s going to compete seriously in the growing mPayment market.
For MasterCard’s part, the development is an expansion of a partnership already in play, as the company announced last year that it would provide Samsung Pay with its tokenization services. It’s also an opportunity to take advantage of a growing market in the financial services space, and to be seen as an innovator. “With the continued global growth and reliance on connected mobile devices, we are delighted to expand our relationship with Samsung by extending the reach of Samsung Pay and MDES to cardholders in Europe,” said MasterCard Europe President Javier Perez. “Through our strong partnership with Samsung we look forward to continuing to drive innovation in mobile commerce by creating simple and secure digital payment experiences for consumers.”
MasterCard has indeed demonstrated a keen interest in the future of mPayments, with executives having expounded on the importance of related security technologies like biometrics and, again, tokenization; and the company has also carefully studied consumer attitudes towards mPayments, noting considerable enthusiasm. And of course MasterCard cards are already being used with Apple Pay, so extending them to rival services can only increase the company’s presence in the overall mPayment sphere.
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