Samsung Electronics’ digital wallet now officially supports Interac debit payments in Canada.
On Wednesday the company announced that effective immediately, consumers with debit cards issued by ATB Financial, CIBC, and Scotiabank that have a Galaxy A5, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S8, and Galaxy S8+ device can now add their cards to Samsung Pay and use their phones for purchases across Canada.
“Interac debit continues to be the most-used payment method in Canada, and by making it available through Samsung Pay, we’re ensuring that even more Canadians will be able to use it to make mobile payments directly from their bank account,” Mark O’Connell, president and CEO at Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation, says in a Nov. 1 press release. “This is part of our ongoing commitment to offer Canadians a broad range of fast and secure payment options, including the convenience of paying with their mobile device.”
With cash usage in decline in Canada – 5 per cent per year on average since 2011 according to insights from the 2017 Global Digital Banking Conference – and almost 60 per cent of the nation comfortable using digital-only payment methods, this expanded support of Samsung Pay will surely be welcomed by consumers.
“As the first bank to offer early access to Samsung Pay in Canada for seamless tap and pay credit card payments, we are excited to provide our clients with another digital home for their CIBC debit cards,” says Todd Roberts, Senior Vice President, Innovation, CIBC. “By delivering convenient and more secure payment options at their favourite retailers across the country, we continue to offer our clients the innovative digital solutions they are looking for.”
For those concerned about security, all Interac mobile solutions employ several layers of protection, including encryption, passcode verification, and transaction limits, in addition to consumer defenses through the Interac Zero Liability policy and a device’s built-in security protocols like fingerprint scanners or PINs, Samsung says.
“When a cardholder adds Interac Debit on Samsung Pay to their device, a Virtual Account Number is created which is unique to that device and different from the physical card number,” the company explains in its release. “The virtual card number is used to make purchases using Samsung Pay, with all transactions going through the Interac Token Service Provider (TSP), a proprietary token platform that generates a sequence of numbers valid for a single transaction only.”
Samsung Pay also supports American Express Canada, Mastercard, and Visa Canada cards as well, and will be made available to Tangerine and Peoples Card Services customers “soon.”
“We are excited to deliver an industry-leading offering with Samsung Pay that redefines how to simply, more securely and conveniently use smartphones for a variety of payment experiences so that Canadians are not without the card they need,” explains Paul Brannen, COO and executive vice president of Samsung Electronics Canada.