Android Pay will launch in the UK 'in the coming months

Google will extend Android Pay to the UK "in the next few months", the company has said.

The system, which will let Android users pay for items with their phones, will be supported by a number of UK banks when it launches -- with the notable exception of Barclay's, which also failed to support Apple Pay at launch.

To start with the contactless payment system will support Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards. The card types will work with the following banks and building societies to begin with:

• Bank of Scotland
• First Direct
• Halifax
• HSBC
• Lloyds Bank
• M&S Bank
• MBNA
• Nationwide

Support for other banks and building societies will be added at a later date, Google said.

Android Pay works in the same was as contactless bank cards and the iPhone's Apple Pay, which was launched in June 2015. The method works by placing the phone near a wireless payment point and unlocking the phone.

Before using the system Android users must store their card details within the app and provide a fingerprint scan or password to authorise the payment.

To work with the system Android devices must be running 4.4 or higher and fitted with a a near field communication (NFC) chip. Rather than paying using actual banking details, Android creates a virtual account number to make a more secure payment.

No specific date was given for when Android Pay would launch in the UK, but Google did confirm that it would work both in shops and on London's contactless transport network.

Android Pay debuted in the US in September and it's likely that the UK will become the its second market. It is also set to launchin Australia by the end of June.

Samsung Pay will launch in Singapore “as early as Q2 2016”

Samsung has already said it will launch Samsung Pay in Singapore this year, but today it set a more definite timeline–sort of. The company announced that the service will be available in retail stores “as early as Q2 2016,” the day after rival Apple Pay rolled out in Singapore for the first time.

To be sure, Apple Pay is currently available only for American Express card holders in Singapore, while Samsung Pay has been available as a payment method for bus and train fares since the end of March. Singapore is an important market, however, because it represents the first step into Southeast Asia for both services.

Samsung Pay’s partnership with American Express, MasterCard, and Visa, and major banks in Singapore–DBS/POSB, OCBC Bank, and Standard Chartered–means it should work at most retail stores that already take credit cards once it finishes rolling out. Apple Pay, of course, also plans to partner with many of the same institutions.

In its announcement, Samsung said that based on its own research, 71 percent of Samsung user “have indicated interest in using Samsung Pay once it becomes available.”

Success is still far from certain, however, for Samsung Pay (or Apple Pay, for that matter). Gartner research director Manjunath Bhat told the Straits Time last month that only 23 percent of Singaporean consumers are currently willing to use mobile payments and that when they do tap their smartphones at checkouts, it is for small transactions.