TD Bank, Regions Bank Support Samsung Pay in US

TD Bank and Regions Bank have agreed to support Samsung Pay in the US. Announcing the coming support in a statement, Samsung asserted, “With the addition of these banks, Samsung Pay continues to grow momentum in the United States—supporting eligible credit and debit cards from more than 130 banks and credit unions” in the country.

Samsung Pay authenticates point of sale payments via fingerprint biometrics. At Money20/20 Europe we learned that Samsung is currently working on improved biometric security for the platform.

The support is certainly important, but falls far short of rival Apple Pay’s roster of well over a thousand banks and credit unions in the US. Of course, Apple Pay had a head start in that country of about a year, which clearly has helped it to accrue its own momentum.

Meanwhile, Samsung Pay has a better shot at catching up with Apple Pay in China, where both mPayment services recently launched (though in that market too, Apple Pay had a head start, albeit a much smaller one). China could prove an even more lucrative market for both companies, if Apple Pay’s successful launch is anything to go by.

Of course, the companies in fact aren’t quite competitors, given that they’re each restricted to discrete hardware ecosystems. From this perspective, Android Pay is the real threat to Samsung Pay’s marketshare, though right now its support base among banks and credit unions is much smaller.