Visa, Samsung form global alliance

MANILA, Philippines - Visa Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have formed a global alliance that combines Visa’s expertise in payments with Samsung’s leadership in mobile device technology to accelerate the availability of mobile payments globally. 



According to the agreement, financial institutions that are planning to launch mobile payment programs will be able to use the Visa Mobile Provisioning Service [1] to securely download payment account information to NFC-enabled Samsung devices. 

In addition, Samsung agreed to load the Visa payWave applet onto its mobile devices featuring NFC technology. Visa payWave is Visa’s mobile payment applet that enables consumers to make “wave and pay” contactless payments using mobile devices.



Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam Iain Jamieson said that introducing mobile contactless card payments makes sense given that mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our daily lives.

“Our partnership with Samsung is only one of Visa’s many continued efforts to expand the ways people conduct secure, accessible and versatile payment transactions,” Jamieson added. 

Samsung is a pioneer in NFC devices and again leading the way in enabling NFC-based mobile payments. The partnership with Visa represents a step towards a global mobile payment platform. 

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is the global communication standard that enables mobile devices to securely communicate with a payment terminal. ABI Research forecasts that a total of 1.95 billion NFC-enabled devices will ship in 2017. 

The Visa Samsung global alliance is a first of its kind between a leading NFC handset manufacturer and payment network that is paving the way for the implementation of large-scale mobile payment programs.