Maybank expanding its digital presence across the region

Singapore

AS part of a strategy to strengthen its digital presence across the region, Maybank has tied up with Samsung Pay in Singapore, allowing the bank's cardholders access to the mobile wallet.

This comes two months after the mobile wallet service's launch here.

Maybank cardholders will be able to make transactions at merchant locations across Singapore using Samsung Pay from Aug 31, the bank said at a launch event on Friday. They can do so by adding their credit and debit cards to a compatible Samsung smartphone and paying at stores by holding the phone near the retailer's contactless reader.

Five Samsung Galaxy smartphones - the Note 7, S6 edge+, S7, S7 edge and Note 5 - will offer the service.

"We want to provide peace of mind to customers through stress-free, hassle-free and convenient financial services to customers, and mobile payment is an important way to deliver this," said Maybank Singapore chief executive Lim Hong Tat.

The bank, which has about 550,000 credit and debit cards in circulation here, expects to have 10,000 cards registered for Samsung Pay within the next 12 months and 20,000 cards by the second year.

To use Samsung Pay, users tap their phones on either a Magnetic Secure Transmission or Near Field Communication reader. They will then need to swipe up on their smartphones to bring up the last transacted credit or debit card and scan their fingerprint or key in their PIN to make payment.

Later this quarter, iris scanning as a mode of payment authentication will be made available on the recently launched Galaxy Note 7, Samsung said.

Apart from the tie-up with Samsung, Maybank has a slew of mobile banking initiatives in the pipeline as part of a digital roadmap for its regional operations, Mr Lim announced.

Its foray into the mobile banking space here is part of a strategy to realise the bank's aspirations of being the "top community bank" (which include business and consumer banking) in Asean.

"Maybank has recognised the need to ensure that we keep abreast of developments, and without a doubt, the digital tsunami has been affecting all banks," its group chief strategy officer Michael Foong said. To that end, the bank is "actively looking" at forming partnerships with other mobile payment systems such as Apple and Android Pay "if there is a compelling proposition", Mr Foong told BT.

Maybank is also looking into tapping on Samsung's biometric authentication systems - such as iris and fingerprint scanning - to allow its customers here to carry out cardless ATM cash withdrawals.

The bank expects the service to be launched in Singapore in the first quarter of next year.