Samsung Pay Steps Up its Global Presence With TD Bank, Regions Bank

One of Samsung’s major advantages in the mobile payment stakes is its worldwide presence.

While Apple is huge in the United States—not that Samsung isn’t, though—Samsung has a much wider presence around the world.

So for Samsung Pay to take advantage of that worldwide install base, it was going to need some better connections to banks around the world. It recently made two new such connections with TD Bank and Regions Bank.

With the new connection, Samsung Pay gains a new foothold in the United States, giving customers the ability to use compatible Samsung devices “soon.”

It’s not clear just how long soon is, but in this case, it’s a safe bet that it’ll be in play by the end of the second quarter.

With a newly-combined total of 130 banks and credit unions now backing Samsung Pay—better than 75 percent of the total market—and over five million registered users accounting for over half a billion dollars in transactions, it’s a big new revenue stream for Samsung.

However, Samsung Pay still has a long way to go to catch Apple Pay, who has 90 percent of all banks behind it and a combined 12 million users.

It’s also made some great strides worldwide, though it’s worth keeping in mind that Apple Pay had a bit of a head start.

Still, it’s the clear global front-runner, and the more ground it gains, the more likely customers are to defect from Samsung altogether for the complete Apple experience.

The good news here for those who want to see Samsung Pay succeed is that the company is clearly putting its best effort forward.

It’s making the necessary connections to get more users in on the action, and it’s also working to get more users interested with new rewards programs, as we saw recently with an earlier Samsung Pay move.

That’s a sign that Samsung isn’t giving up on this market—not that it should even at its current numbers—and clearly wants to take it as far as it can go.

Samsung’s making some great moves here, and though the overall state of the economy might be working against it—spending is on the decline in some places—it’s certainly not resting on its laurels thus far.