Samsung poised to debut mobile payment system in Europe

South Korea's top tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. plans to roll out its mobile payment system in the European market in the near future, industry sources said Friday, speeding up its efforts to outpace rivals.

Samsung recently agreed with MasterCard Inc. to lay the groundwork for Samsung Pay's debut in the European market, the source said, adding the two sides agreed to start the service in the region as early as by the end of this year.

Samsung plans to secure 17 million users of its payment system around the globe by 2020. The service is currently on a pilot run in South Korea and plans to officially be released in the United States soon.

Samsung Pay stands out from other competitors as the service supports virtually all forms of payment -- near field communication (NFC), magnetic secure transmission (MST) and bar code technologies -- which reaches far more registers than that of its rivals, such as Apple Inc.'s Apple Pay.

The breakthrough was made possible after Samsung decided to buy U.S. mobile technology firm LoopPay Inc., which has patent rights related to MST, a payments solution that works with existing magnetic stripe readers.

While the feature is available only for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, it is widely expected Samsung Pay will also be equipped in the new phablet devices that are set to be showcased in August.