Russian Standard Bank, Samsung Electronics and MasterCard announced the commercial launch of a contact-less payment service on some flagship NFC-enabled Samsung devices, Telecompaper.com reported on July 3, 2014. For MasterCard and Samsung, the Russian launch is the second one globally and the first in Europe, and will help to spread mobile payments. Available through Russian Standard Bank’s mobile banking app, the service enables users of Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to upload MasterCard prepaid contact-less NFC cards issued by Russian Standard Bank into their smartphones. The smartphones can then be used to pay for goods and services using innovative Tap & Go MasterCard PayPass technology.

This is the first time that contact-less payment technology has been made available on the Russian market to users of Samsung devices with an embedded NFC chip, implemented within a banking application, according to MasterCard. The application is currently supported by LTE-enabled smartphones (GT-I9505 and SM-N9005 models). The application will also be supported by 3G models (GT-I9500 and SM-N9000) following a system update, to be carried out within the month. Over-the-air download and management of Mobile MasterCard PayPass cards in NFC chips of Samsung smartphones is provided through the TSM platform of Trevica, a MasterCard subsidiary.