SEOUL, South Korea—Samsung Pay users can now wire money intentionally through their mobile phones and save in fees compared to sending money overseas via
conventional remittance route.
Samsung Electronics Co. said it has introduced the beta version overseas remittance service on its mobile payment system Samsung Pay in partnership with local foreign money transfer operators Hanpass and Sentbe. The beta service will be available in 17 countries including the United States, China, and Japan. The company plans to gradually expand the service to other countries as well as add more partners, Pulse stated.
The company said it was able to cut the remittance service fee sharply by the use of pre-funding and pooling methods. Pre-fund model refers to an arrangement that the remitting agent keeps a certain amount of money with an intermediate agent and sends money to the final recipient account upon customer’s request. Pooling method is sending money in a pool instead of separate transactions. Both methods do not go through traditional overseas remittance network or intermediary institution, resulting in much lower overseas remittance fee, Pulse explained.
To transfer money overseas, Samsung Pay users can use their existing bank account, rather than setting up a new account. The remittance service will be offered in various formats including cash pick up at an agent and direct transfer to a specific account.