Newsletter 
Mobile payments are the new frontier that everyone wants to be a part of. Although Google tried to pioneer the coming of age wave of mobile payments using you smartphone with Google Wallet years ago, it wasn’t until the launch of Android Pay that they got things right, and this was also after Apple had already announced and launched Apple Pay, and Samsung had announced Samsung Pay following their acquisition of LoopPay. LG was rumored to join in with their own mobile payment solution quite recently, and has now confirmed LG Pay (their upcoming mobile payment solution) in an announcement this morning about partnering up with credit card issuers, with a goal of launching the service for LG devices sometime in December of this year as was rumored earlier.
The announcement from earlier this morning details that LG is preparing all they can to work towards that goal of getting LG Pay up and running next month, as the two major card issuers they have partnered up with in South Korea are Shinhan Card and KB Kookmin Card. There is a chance that LG Pay will utilize NFC technology for completing the transactions between consumers’ smartphones and payment terminals at participating locations, although there is still no clear confirmation from LG on how the technology will function and what powers it. It’s currently being speculated that LG may end up issuing users a physical card that ends up tieing together all payment cards in one place as opposed to doing things like their competitors.
In addition to being light on specifics, LG Pay is also only scheduled for a launch next month in LG’s native South Korea. When and if LG brings LG Pay to the U.S. or other international regions is unknown, but LG is looking to shed more light on those details in the weeks ahead, so perhaps after the launch in their own region they’ll open up about plans for a launch in other markets. This also means that LG might stay tight-lipped about the technology behind LG Pay until it launches in South Korea. One thing is for certain, if LG Pay launches in other nations, the launch partners mentioned this morning are not likely to be associated with the payments system outside of their home country as they are local banks within the region.
