Japan FinTech Observer | Tontines | ex-Goldman & Barclays Tech MD
payments
Uniqlo announced that it would be shutting down "UNIQLO Pay," the QR code payment feature on its official smartphone app, the "UNIQLO app," in January 2026. "With the diversification of payment methods, the use of QR code payments and credit cards has increased. We have
broker/dealer
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC Group), its wholly owned subsidiary Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and SMBC Nikko Securities, and Jefferies Financial Group have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their global strategic alliance by establishing a joint venture in Japan to conduct their wholesale Japanese equities business. This
central bank
At the Monetary Policy Meeting ending today, the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan decided, by a 7-2 majority vote, to set the following guideline for money market operations for the intermeeting period: The Bank will encourage the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.5 percent.
core banking
SBI Sumishin Net Bank has decided to evolve the open-system core banking system "NEFSS (Next Evolution in Financial Services Systems)" provided by IBM Japan into a new architecture that enables expansion aligned with future growth, and to fully migrate to an Amazon Web Services cloud environment by early
NFT
SBINFT and Japan Blockchain Infrastructure have completed development to integrate Japan's domestic public blockchain "Japan Open Chain" with the NFT marketplace "SBINFT Market" operated by SBINFT. With the completion of this development, "SBINFT Market" users can now trade NFTs issued on Japan
banking
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC Group) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) have announced that, with regards to the agreement to acquire a 20% equity stake in YES BANK from State Bank of India and other financial institutions, all conditions precedent including regulatory approvals have been satisfied and this initial
stablecoin
Densan System has concluded a basic agreement with JPYC Corporation for a joint study toward the social implementation of payment, remittance, and settlement services utilizing the Japanese yen stablecoin "JPYC". Overview of This Agreement Both companies will iteratively develop use cases for B2C/B2B payments and inter-company settlements
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-ninth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The Bank of Japan will hold its Monetary Policy Meeting on September 18 & 19, following the FOMC in the US. The consensus expectation is for the Bank to keep its policy rate on hold this time; beyond
CBDC
The Deutsche Bundesbank Representative Office, jointly with Japan's Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan, held an event titled "CBDC Insights: Digital Euro and Japan's Approach" on Thursday, September 11, 2025, on the occasion of Burkhard Balz's visit, the board member
compliance
TOPPAN Edge, a TOPPAN Group company and wholly owned subsidiary of TOPPAN Holdings, was certified by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) as the first Japanese Qualified vLEI Issuer (QVI) in the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) ecosystem. In November this year, TOPPAN Edge will launch vLEI-Gateway™, a vLEI
security token
SBI Digital Markets (SBIDM), Samara Alpha Asset Management (Samara Alpha), and Bracket Labs Group (Bracket) have forged a strategic alliance with the objective of reshaping the tokenized securities market. Through the collaboration, Samara Alpha will leverage Bracket’s technology platform to assist in actively unlocking access to yield strategies while
AML
Compliance Data Lab has announced the implementation of "Compliance Station® UBO" at West Japan City Bank. This system utilizes the high-quality corporate database of Tokyo Shoko Research (TSR) to instantly provide Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) information online. The introduction of "Compliance Station® UBO" will streamline West