Samsung is expanding its digital payments platform, Samsung Pay, with a debit card later this summer. The South Korean phone maker, in a blog post, said it’s collaborating with San Francisco, California-based personal finance company SoFi to launch “an innovative debit card backed by a cash management account.”
To accompany a debit card, Samsung is also developing a “mobile-first money management platform.” While the company didn’t share much on this service, it will likely plug into the Samsung debit card and the rest of the linked accounts on Samsung Pay to let you manage all of them from a central dashboard. Plus, it could potentially augment Samsung Pay’s existing supplementary services such as the rewards program where users can earn points with each transaction and the cashback system for online shopping.
“Our vision is to help consumers better manage their money so that they can achieve their dreams and goals. Now more than ever, mobile financial services and money management tools will play an even bigger role in our daily lives while also opening up new possibilities,” added Sang Ahn, Vice President and GM of Samsung Pay in North America.
Samsung Pay was launched about five years ago and is one of the most widely accepted digital payments platforms. The platform relies on its built-in magnetic secure transmission technology (MST) that allows your phone to mimic a traditional credit or debit card, letting you pay with it just about anywhere.
It’s worth noting that Samsung hasn’t yet explicitly said the debit card will be available in a physical form. It’s quite possible it will be a virtual debit card of sorts that will work exclusively through the Samsung Pay app. If so, however, that could severely restrict the card’s sales since the MST chip is only found on midrange and premium Samsung phones.
Of late, tech companies have been actively investing in financial services that leverage their platforms’ vast reach. A year ago, Apple announced its own Goldman Sachs-branded credit card. Google is also rumoured to be planning to roll out a physical debit card in partnership with various banks including CITI and Stanford Federal Credit Union.
