Just as expected, Samsung Electronics and China UnionPay (CUP) have just announced the introduction of Samsung Pay in China. Samsung describes its service as "simple, safe and easy-to-use," also highlighting its compatibility with most merchants. "Samsung Pay works virtually anywhere you can swipe or tap your card in China," they say.
The list of banks that offer support for Samsung Pay in China includes the following nine names China CITIC Bank, China Construction Bank, China Everbright Bank, China Guangfa Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd, China Merchants Bank, Hua Xia Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Ping An Bank. In addition to them, Samsung plans to add support for select credit and debit cards from six additional banks - Bank of China, Bank of Beijing, Bank of Communications, China Bohai Bank, Industrial Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.
For now, Samsung Pay only works with Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 in China. However, the company also plans to add support for "additional mid-range models." Unfortunately, they did not say anything about when is this going to happen.