Samsung and MasterCard have announced an extension of their strategic partnership as the former prepares to launch its mobile payment system across Europe, enabling consumers with flagship Samsung mobile devices to make contactless payments in stores.

The expansion of Samsung Pay leverages the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES), which provides a tokenisation solution to ensure payments are secure and enable a quick scaling connection with bank partners.

Samsung Pay was announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, and makes use of Magnetic Secure Transmission technology developed by LoopPay to duplicate the effect of a credit cards magnetic stripe, enabling the payment solution to be used on card readers that dont include NFC technology.

Upon launch in Europe, card issuers will be able to connect to MDES and activate the Samsung Pay service. Once this has been done, individual cardholders can active their credit, debit or reloadable prepaid cards and use their mobile devices to make purchases.

“Samsung Pay is pleased to join forces with MasterCard to offer a simple and safe mobile payment experience enabled for wider merchant acceptance to MasterCard cardholders and issuers in Europe,” said Injong Rhee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics and global head of Samsung Pay. “Both organisations are committed to ground breaking fintech innovations that will deliver on the promise of a true mobile wallet.”

“With the continued global growth and reliance on connected mobile devices, we are delighted to expand our relationship with Samsung by extending the reach of Samsung Pay and MDES to cardholders in Europe,” said Javier Perez, president of MasterCard Europe. “Europeans have been leading the way in the adoption of new ways to shop, buy and make a payment.

“Through our strong partnership with Samsung we look forward to continuing to drive innovation in mobile commerce by creating simple and secure digital payment experiences for consumers.”