Samsung Pay Comes To Spain

Samsung Pay is coming to Spain, according to an announcement that the payments platform is now available through CaixaBank and through that bank’s mobile unit, imaginBank.

Those two financial companies are the first to launch in Spain with Samsung Pay. CaixaBank launched its first mobile service in September of last year. That platform is based on HCE technology. But the embrace of Samsung Pay comes in tandem with campaigns that seek to broaden usage of Samsung hardware, including smartphones and tablets. Now, with the inclusion of Samsung Pay, that service will debut across the next several months, according to the release.

The Samsung Pay adoption will come after internal trials are completed, said the bank. At present, the service is compatible with roughly 70 percent of stores in Spain that are using contactless technology as part of their roster of payment options. The payment terminal count in that nation numbers more than 600,000.

CaixaBank said that its mobile unit, imaginBank, launched earlier this month, helps users leverage social media and chat networks that include WhatsApp and Facebook, among others.

As has been widely reported, Samsung Pay is locked in an increasingly global battle with Apple Pay. The move into Spain comes as Samsung Pay is set to debut in the United Kingdom this year and eventually branch out into other nations, such as China.

Late last year, Samsung said that, in the United States, users would be able to make purchases over the Web. Samsung also said that Samsung Pay will be extended to be available across its lower cost phones, whereas, previously, the service had been available only across the higher cost Galaxy line of phones. The company has also expanded its base of banks accepting the payments platform to include Chase, PNC and several credit unions.