Just saw the news that Samsung has launched their version of the “Apple Card” and they decided to start in the UK. It looks like the card is powered by Curve, but it is purely NFC based, no physical card will be issued.
On their website, it looks like the card is only compatible with Samsung devices.
I’d imagine that it’s because a Samsung Curve account and a Curve account are exactly the same account, with the former being a Curve account with an added flag similar to “Signed up through Samsung=1”
(Presumably at the point in the future when Samsung decide they no longer wish to work with Curve, the flag will get reversed and every Samsung Curve user can quickly be converted to a bog standard Curve user.)
It’s just curve card, without physical card, on Samsung devices only, and one still must connect something to it.
So instead of getting banks to support Samsung Pay natively, one has to front it with a curve card.
It does seem that Santander might be the best bank in the UK afterall. It supports all the Pay options: Apple, Google, Samsung, Fitbit, Garmin. Would be cute if they did Ali & We pay too.