In support of its Digital Enablement Express program launched Tuesday, MasterCard announced that Samsung has joined Express as one of the program's first partners.

Express is intended to expedite the process of digitizing and tokenizing MasterCard accounts, giving issuers the immediate ability to participate in Samsung Pay and enabling Samsung to bring secure mobile payments to consumers more quickly, and at scale, according to a press release.

"Partnering with MasterCard via Express ensures that Samsung Pay can be brought to millions of consumers globally in a scalable and efficient way that creates value for us and issuers," said Injong Rhee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics and global head of Samsung Pay. "We are excited to combine MasterCard's Digital Express program with Samsung Pay to accelerate a digital payment experience that is simple, secure, and works virtually anywhere you can swipe or tap a card, in addition to all the benefits and guarantees that consumers have come to expect with every MasterCard transaction."

Express enables companies such as Samsung to request payment tokens through the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service, according to the announcement. This enables every MasterCard issuer to securely digitize tokens into millions of devices, Internet of Things environments and Card on File systems.

"As every connected device can potentially become a secure payment device, we are excited to partner with a key player like Samsung for our Express program. Express is a powerful framework to help both Samsung and our issuers accelerate the time to market globally for secure digital payments via Samsung Pay," said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard.

In addition to Samsung, Google, Capital One, Fifth Third Bank and KeyBank also announced their intent to partner with MasterCard on the program.