Samsung has announced it is extending its global partnership with MasterCard to deliver Samsung Pay to European card issuers using the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) — and is currently working with European banks and partners to bring the mobile payment service to the continent following a planned launch in the US and South Korea later this year.

SAMSUNG PAY: Set for European launch following US and Korea lead

“European card issuers will be able to connect to the MDES platform and activate the Samsung Pay service upon launch,” MasterCard says.

“Earlier this year, MasterCard announced it would provide the tokenization service to Samsung Pay for its secure transactions, enabling a quick scaling connection to bank partners in the US.

“Samsung Pay is scheduled to launch in the US and South Korea later this summer and Samsung is currently working with banks and partners to bring the payment service to Europe.”

“Samsung Pay is pleased to join forces with MasterCard to offer a simple and safe mobile payment experience enabled for wider merchant acceptance to MasterCard cardholders and issuers in Europe,” says Injong Rhee, global head of Samsung Pay.

“Both organisations are committed to groundbreaking fintech innovations that will deliver on the promise of a true mobile wallet.”

Samsung chose Oberthur Technologies (OT) for the deployment of Samsung Pay in Europe earlier in May, utilising the technology provider’s Pearl secure element embedded in Samsung S6 and S6 Edge devices. The company began trialling the mobile payment service in Korea earlier this month.

MasterCard first launched the MDES platform in September 2014, which is currently being used for Apple Pay. Plans to expand the platform to private label, in-app, ecommerce and recurring billing card-on-file tokenization were announced in June this year.