Samsung expands phone-pay service

LONDON — Samsung Electronics Co. made its Android and Apple Pay competitor available in the U.K. last week, as it attempts to play catch-up in one of the major markets for contactless payments.

Three British banks — Santander U.K.,, MBNA Corp. and Nationwide — will support Samsung Pay, with American Express Co., First Direct and HSBC Bank PLC arriving within “weeks,” said Kyle Brown, head of technology, content and launch management at Samsung U.K.

Contactless payments are extremely popular in the U.K. A quarter of all card transactions are made using the technology, according to a January report from the U.K. Cards Association, an industry body. More than 100 million contactless cards are in circulation within the population of 65 million people.

Samsung Pay is late to the game in the U.K., however. Apple Inc.’s offering, which opened in the U.K. in 2015, and Android Pay, by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, launched in 2016. Both of Samsung’s rivals let users authorize purchases using their fingerprint. Samsung says that users of its Galaxy S8 will also be able to use a scan of their iris in the U.K., using the phone’s front-facing camera.

Samsung Pay is supported by the Galaxy S8, S7 and S6, all of which will be compatible with standard contactless payment terminals in the U.K. Other Samsung devices, including its Gear series of smartwatches, are due to support Samsung Pay in the near future, Brown said.