Santander Spain Launches Samsung Pay Mobile Payment Service

Banco Santander customers will be able to carry out payments through mobile payment service provider Samsung Pay. With this initiative, Santander Spain broadens its range of digital banking services so that customers can pay easily and safely with their smartphone in establishments that accept contactless card payments, as well as withdraw cash and perform other transactions at Santander’s 2,000 contactless ATMs.

Santander customers only need to actívate their debit or credit cards on compatible Samsung devices. In Spain, Samsung Pay is currently compatible with Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, Galaxy S6, S6 edge and S6 edge+, as well as Galaxy A5 2016  and 2017.

Santander Spain’s CEO, Rami Aboukhair, said: “We offer customers constant innovation, with products and services which are increasingly adapted to the digital enviroment and which comply with safety and user-friendly requirements. We are the only bank that allows customers to pay with any device, always looking for the best experience for our customers.”

Celestino García, corporate vice-president of Samsung Spain, said: “The alliance with Banco Santander ratifies the success of our payment solution in Spain and the company’s commitment to make this market the first in Europe to welcome Samsung Pay one year ago. Customers and financial institutions are responding very well, which reaffirms the vision of the Spanish financial market as one of the most innovative in the world”.

Samsung Pay, which further enlarges its ecosystem of alliances with this agreement, stands out for its functional simplicity and safety. Use of this service does not imply additional cost for users or establishments, which need only a payment terminal with contactless technology for the service to work. 75% of payment terminals in Spain already use this technology.

The service is activiated by simply bringing the smartphone within less than five centimetres of the point of sale terminal or card reader, and swiping the user´s finger over the smartphone screen. The user should choose the card with which he wants to make the payment and identify himself with the fingerprint sensor to authorize the transaction and guarantee the complete security of the operation. Samsung Pay uses three security layers: fingerprint identification and iris scanner, tokenization, which encrypts card credentials, and the leading mobile security platform, Samsung KNOX.

Samsung Pay allows payments with any Android Smartphone with NFC and the Santander Wallet application. Santander is the only financial entity in Spain that offers its clients the main mobile payment systems.