Mashreq, UAE’s leading financial institution, said it has become the first bank in the region to offer customers early access to Samsung Pay – a best in class and secure mobile payment service that works as a contactless credit or debit card.

With the roll-out of Samsung Pay, Mashreq reinforces its position as the undisputed leader with an enviable history of rolling out new innovations, said a senior official.

"At Mashreq, we believe in launching innovations that benefit our customers. We are passionate about providing our customers with digital tools to make their day to day financial management better," remarked Subroto Som, the head of Retail Banking at Mashreq.

With this move, Mashreq said its debit and credit cardholders (Visa/MasterCard) are now enabled to perform transactions at any merchant in an instant, convenient and secure manner, without the use of plastic cards.

Samsung Pay is a secure mobile payment service that is compatible with the latest Near Field Communication (NFC) and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technologies, it stated.

"To our customers, a better experience means it must be simple, fast and convenient. We pioneered Cardless Cash and Card Control in 2015 and 2016 respectively as the first Bank to make it possible to withdraw cash without a card and to empower customers to have full control over their cards instantly," remarked Som.

Additionally, and for a limited period, new customers who apply for a Mashreq Solitaire, Smart Saver Global or Platinum Elite credit card will also receive a free Samsung Galaxy S7 edge smartphone, preloaded with Samsung Pay and be the first in the UAE to experience this revolutionary new mobile payment solution. Samsung Pay provides secure payments using biometric authentication, tokenisation and Samsung Knox to secure customer payment information.  

Som pointed out that these innovative initiatives from Mashreq are aligned with UAE’s vision to become a digital economy.

"Although the penetration of digital wallets is still in a nascent stage, I strongly believe the market will grow exponentially in the next few years. Partnering with Samsung is an exciting move in that direction. Samsung Pay App offers Mashreq Cardholders and merchants a simple and secure way to conduct payment transactions. It is the kind of innovation that brings the worlds of mobile payments and physical commerce closer together," he added.-TradeArabia News Service