NFC Times Exclusive – Gemalto’s deal to supply TSM technology for Samsung Pay when the mobile-payments service launches in Europe, which Gemalto announced today, might net some favorable coverage for the vendor, but it will do little to help its struggling mobile financial services unit.

First, Gemalto is not the only TSM providing services to Samsung for Samsung Pay. Rival TSM Oberthur Technologies announced a similar deal in May, and there are believed to be other vendors that will provide these services, as well. As NFC Times reported in May, unlike Apple with Apple Pay, Samsung is opening up its payments platform to contracts with conventional TSMs and other mainstream NFC vendors. 

Further, the Gemalto deal with Samsung appears to be limited to helping Samsung provide a service provider-TSM function for issuers that want to put their credit or debit applications in the Samsung Pay wallet. Gemalto, like Oberthur, and probably other TSMs, would help with enrollment, provisioning and lifecycle management of applications over-the-air for European banks. This may include personalization, as well, and may only apply to issuers that are already customers of the TSM.