Samsung is trying to launch its mobile payments solution in as many markets as possible. Samsung Pay is currently available in Australia, Brazil, Canada (currently limited to CIBC customers), China, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and the US. Now, the company is working on its way to launch Samsung Pay in India.

We’ve received information that Samsung is testing its mobile payment service for the Indian market, and that it could be launched in the first half of 2017. Since India does not have many NFC-equipped Point of Sale devices, Samsung Pay’s MST functionality would be a boon to the users. It is being expected that the South Korean smartphone giant would bring Samsung Pay functionality to its mid-range smartphones, which would further help increase its adoption in the country.

After the recent demonetization of INR 500 and INR 1,000 currency denominations in India, people have increasingly started using credit and debit cards as well as mobile payment solutions like Paytm and Freecharge, so it is the right time for Samsung to launch Samsung Pay in India. Samsung recently tied up with most major Indian banks for its My Money Transfer app for Tizen-based Z1 and Z3 smartphones.

Samsung had promised that it would launch Samsung Pay in the UK by the end of 2016, but the launch has been delayed to 2017 as it is taking longer than expected to tie up with the banks. This could happen with the service’s launch in India as well, so we have to understand that there is a possibility of some delay in Samsung Pay’s launch in India. However, we feel that the Galaxy S8‘s launch would be a great time for Samsung to launch its mobile payments service in the country.