Samsung has revealed the UK will be the first European country to gain access to its payment system, which will launch in the “near future”.

Samsung will launch its Apple Pay rival in South Korea on August 20, while the payment system will arrive in the US on September 28. As yet there is no fixed date for the UK launch.

The South Korean tech company first unveiled Samsung Pay at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March. Its UK launch will come significantly after that of Apple Pay, which was introduced in July.

Samsung Pay will also need to compete against Android-owner Google.

Google has struck a deal with 13 financial institutions to allow shoppers with an Android smartphone, including the Samsung Galaxy S6, to make contactless payments.

Unlike Android Pay and Apple Pay, Samsung Pay users will be able to pay for products using their mobile phones even if the terminal is not NFC-enabled.

This is enabled through the use of Magnetic Secure Transmission technology that works by touching the phone against a magstripe reader, although Samsung Pay is also NFC compatible.

Most payment terminals are still equipped with legacy magstripe readers, which were introduced as a backup to chip and pin.

The technology aims to offer consumers security reassurances through its Knox-branded software, which includes fingerprint verification and digital tokenisation.

Users can use the payment function on a Samsung Galaxy phone even if it is in sleep mode and complete the transaction using biometric authentication.

Transactions are limited to £20, but will increase to £30 from September.

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