Samsung today announced the launch of its mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, in China, which has been made possible with its association with China UnionPay. The company had announced last month that it will be launching Samsung Pay in China sometime in March.

Initially, Samsung Pay in China will support debit and credit cards from the following banks in the region:

• China CITIC Bank
• China Construction Bank
• China Everbright Bank
• China Guangfa Bank
• China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd
• China Merchants Bank
• Hua Xia bank
• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
• Ping An bank

The company, however, promises that eventually debit and credit cards from six more banks — Bank of China, Bank of Beijing, Bank of Communications, China Bohai Bank, Industrial Bank, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank — will also be supported in Samsung Pay.

Samsung Pay is currently available on the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5. Samsung’s latest mid-range A-series smartphones also feature support for Samsung Pay, but the functionality will be enabled in them sometime in the future.

Apple launched its own NFC based mobile payment service — Apple Pay — in China towards the middle of February. Unlike Apple though, Samsung’s payment service does not require an NFC-equipped PoS and can work with even traditional PoS using MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission).

The launch of Samsung Pay in China should help in further bolstering the sales of Samsung’s latest flagship handsets — the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge — in China. The handsets have been estimated to receive over 10 million pre-orders in the country.