Magnetic secure transmission (MST) is the name for

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...

technology in which devices such as

smartphones A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which ...

emit a signal that mimics the

magnetic stripe The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share ...

on a traditional

payment card Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as a bank, to a customer that enables its owner (the cardholder) to access the funds in the customer's designated bank accounts, or through a credit account and ma ...

Overview

MST sends a magnetic signal from the device to the

payment terminal A payment terminal, also known as a point of sale (POS) terminal, credit card terminal, EFTPOS terminal (or by the older term as PDQ terminal which stands for "Process Data Quickly"), is a device which interfaces with payment cards to make electro ...

's card reader. It emulates swiping a physical card without having to upgrade the terminal's software or hardware to support more advanced technology, such as

contactless payments Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung P ...

. Hence, in contrast to payments using

near-field communication Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be u ...

, MST technology is compatible with nearly all payment terminals that possess a magnetic stripe reader. MST is designed to transmit from within of the magnetic card reader. Outside of physical transmission, there are no changes to the magnetic stripe card system (i.e., reception, processing, information content, and cryptographic protocols). However, the information being transmitted being dynamic may allow

tokenization Tokenization may refer to: * Tokenization (lexical analysis) in language processing * Tokenization (data security) in the field of data security * Word segmentation * Tokenism Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic ...

. MST was originally developed by LoopPay, which was acquired by

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

in 2015 and incorporated into its

Samsung Pay Samsung Pay (stylized as SΛMSUNG Pay) is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Samsung Electronics that lets users make payments using compatible phones and other Samsung-produced devices. The service supports contactless payments usin ...

service. In 2017, LG launched its competing

LG Pay LG Pay was a mobile payment and digital wallet service by LG Electronics that let users make payments using compatible phones. The service supported contactless payments using near-field communications (NFC), but also incorporated wireless magne ...

service, which uses a similar technology called Wireless Magnetic Communication (WMC). The original MST and WMC mimicked unencrypted magnetic stripe technology in order to be compatible with older credit card terminals. The wireless transmissions were not encrypted and therefore not be considered "secure". The Samsung Pay and LG implementations of MST use secure

EMV EMV is a payment method based on a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV stands for " Europay, Mastercard, and Visa", the three companies that created th ...

compatible tokens and are considered to be secure.

References

Payment cards {{telephony-stub