Samsung Electronics reportedly says it has an agreement with payment network China UnionPay that would enable embedded chips in more than 3 million of its devices in China with China UnionPay’s contactless-payments service, though no banks have yet been mentioned as issuers.

The reported agreement comes in advance of the widely expected launch of a version of Apple Pay in China in coming months, part of a partnership between UnionPay and Apple. UnionPay has already experimented with NFC payments on embedded chips in HTC and Samsung phones and in the summer announced a deal with Chinese device maker ZTE. 

The Samsung tie-up with UnionPay would include use of Samsung’s forthcoming phablet, the Galaxy Note 4, which would mean the device carries a stacked NFC controller and embedded chip, likely from NXP Semiconductors.