US Bank Joins List Of Samsung Pay Backers

One bank after another has been getting on board with Samsung Pay since the mobile wallet was announced; the latest to do so is U.S. Bank.

In a press release on Monday (March 2), the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States announced that it has begun collaborating with Samsung Electronics in order to enable U.S. Bank cardmembers to use Samsung Pay — a feature of the soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy S6 phone — for credit card transactions.

U.S. Bank states in the release that this integration is part of the company’s ongoing process of developing secure, convenient and innovative payment options.

“We’re thrilled to have payments become a core capability of the mobile phone,” said Pam Joseph, vice chairwoman and head of U.S. Bank Payment Services. “The result of mobile payments is that our customers can use the same, familiar credit-card payment system but with added security and convenience.”

As the release states, Samsung Pay, which was developed in partnership with Visa and MasterCard, uses Near Field Communication (NFC) as well as Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) — a new technology that is proprietary to Samsung — to increase and expand access to mobile payments for merchants as well as consumers.

There are details yet to be released about how U.S. Bank cardholders will be able to use Samsung Pay. U.S. Bank, according to the press release, plans to make a further announcement regarding these details later in the year.