Samsung Pay makes debut in Russia

Samsung Pay Russia
PAY ATTENTION: Mobile payments system continues its expansion with Russia launch

Samsung Pay has launched in Russia with support from Alfa-Bank, MTS Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Russian Standard Bank, Yandex, mobile network operator MTS and Mastercard. It is available on Samsung Galaxy S7/Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung Galaxy A5/Galaxy A7, Samsung Galaxy Note5 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ devices.

In the fourth quarter of this year “another major bank in the country” will also begin backing the mobile payments system, say Samsung, with the planned number of supporters increasing “at least twice” by 2017. “This will cover about 65% of private investor banks and 80% of the urban population of the country,” the company adds.

“After the successful launch last year, Samsung Pay has become a popular way of making payments for the millions of users of Samsung smartphones worldwide,” says Arkady Graf, head of Samsung Mobile in Russia. “We are very pleased to begin work with such strong partners and we hope to expand their number in the next year to provide a large selection and excellent service for users all over Russia.”

Reports that Samsung Pay was planning to launch in Russia first emerged in February 2016. Samsung Pay was introduced in South Korea in August 2015 and in the US a month later. Its debut in China in partnership with China UnionPay was announced in December.

The mobile payments service made its first appearance in Europe in June 2016 when it arrived in Spain. Its roll out in Singapore later in the same month was closely followed by another in Australia. In July the service launched in Puerto Rico and Brazil. Samsung Pay is expected to go live in Canada and the UK this year.

Plans for a global expansion of the service were unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February 2016. Some 100m transactions in seven countries have been made using Samsung Pay since its introduction.

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