PSCU members CEFCU and VACU first to launch Samsung Pay
CUSO is one of the first group service providers to enable Samsung Pay wallet for credit unions
ST. PETERSBURG, FL (November 24, 2015) — PSCU, the nation’s leading credit union service organization, announced today that CEFCU (Peoria, IL; assets $5.2B) and Virginia Credit Union (Richmond, VA; assets $2.8B) are the first of the CUSO’s Owner Credit Unions to launch the Samsung Pay digital wallet to their members. CEFCU and VACU members with credit and debit cards in any of the credit unions’ MasterCard consumer programs are now able to load their cards into the Samsung Pay wallet for use in either Near Field Communications- or mag stripe-based point-of-sale terminals.
“CEFCU is excited to be able to add Samsung Pay to our lineup of digital wallets,” said Denise Ghere, Vice President of CEFCU. “The versatility of Samsung Pay with its combination of NFC and secure transmission technology means CEFCU members will have a greater range of merchants and terminal types where they can use CEFCU credit and debit cards.”
A key differentiating feature of Samsung Pay comes from technology known as Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST), which works on virtually any POS card reader making it almost universally accepted at retail outlets. The Samsung devices equipped with NFC chips and MST Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 smartphones enable Samsung Pay to work with both NFC and traditional mag stripe POS technology. Since the Galaxy S6 can emulate the magnetic stripe of a card, it should work on over 90 percent of card payment terminals, according to Samsung.
CEFCU and VACU also offer Apple Pay to their members and regard digital wallets as a strategic advantage in meeting their members’ demands for new and more secure payments methods.
“Embracing these emerging technologies demonstrates to our members that we will be ready to deliver the latest payment platforms as they become available in the market,” said Joe Lovasz, Director Cards and Payments for VACU. “We always aim to meet our members¹ expectations for the most secure, convenient ways to use their VACU credit and debit cards.”
Both credit unions plan to promote the availability of Samsung Pay to members through their websites, social media channels and email communications. While the percentage of transactions made with the available digital wallets is low in comparison to the overall volume of payments transactions, both credit unions expect adoption and traction to grow as merchant acceptance grows and consumers become more comfortable paying with non-plastic methods.
PSCU also announced all new Apple Pay enrollments will include the onboarding of all three digital wallets supported by the CUSO Android, Apple and Samsung. “We are committed to partnering with leading payments technology providers to offer our Owner credit unions multiple options for digital payments,” said Chuck Fagan, PSCU President & CEO. “Our size and scale as a cooperative CUSO facilitates speed-to-market for our owners to quickly deliver the digital and mobile payments options their members are requesting.”
About PSCU
PSCU, the nation’s premier payments CUSO and an integrated financial technology solutions provider, supports the success of more than 2,400 financial institutions and processes nearly 7.7 billion transactions annually. Committed to service excellence and focused on continuous innovation, PSCU’s payment processing, fraud and risk management, data and analytics, digital banking, strategic consulting and real-time payments platforms, along with 24/7/365-member support via its contact centers, help deliver personalized, connected experiences. The origin of PSCU’s model is collaboration and scale, and the company has leveraged its influence on behalf of credit unions and their members for more than 45 years. Today, PSCU provides an end-to-end, competitive advantage that enables credit unions to securely grow and meet evolving consumer demands. For more information, visit pscu.com.
