Biometrics-backed mobile payment system Samsung Pay has launched in the UK, almost two years after Apple Pay but potentially offering more modalities than just fingerprint.Samsung Pay arrives with support for Visas and Mastercards from Nationwide, MBNA, and Santander.In a statement, Mastercard said it is also working with the major banks Santander and MBNA to enable their cardholders to use their Mastercard with Samsung Pay.Mark Barnett, President, Mastercard UK & Ireland said: “We are thrilled to see Samsung Pay land in the UK, and we are enjoying working alongside them our partner banks on behalf of our cardholders. Every Samsung Pay transaction made with Mastercard is highly secure – a critical part of this is our ability to tokenise cardholder details”.As the Guardian points out, Samsung has also worked out an agreement with Travel for London that allows users to designate a card in their Samsung Pay wallet as their “travel card.” This means that Samsung Pay users can pay for their TfL transportation without having to turn on the screen or select a card.Samsung's ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 let owners pay for goods using their iris.However, while the company was praised for adding iris-scanning to its latest phone, the phablet was beset by problems after battery issues caused some of the phones to burst into flames when charging.It is widely expected that the Note 8 will ship with iris recognition.
Will mobile iris payments arrive in UK with Samsung Pay?
