“We aim to be a bigger player than Visa and MasterCard in Asia”
Sannomiya Koremitsu, president and CEO of JCB International, wants to work with players like China UnionPay against a “common challenger.” December 22, 2010 | Peter HoflichWhile JCB was established in 1961, it wasn’t until 1981 that it established a foreign division, JCB International (JCBI). In 1983, banks outside of Japan starting issuing its cards, and the company now has 21 overseas offices in 16 countries, claiming merchant and cash advance locations in 190 countries and territories, with 6.02 million of its 64 million cards issued in 18 overseas markets. Sannomiya Koremitsu, president and CEO of JCBI since June 2010, but a corporate planning executive since September 1995, has noted that card use overseas by Japanese travellers—the business’ bread and butter—has been challenged. “In terms of Japanese consumers and travellers card use, there are specific external factors that negatively influenced Japanese travellers, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, SARS, bird flu and swine flu,” says Koremitsu.But an overseas acquiring network is important to the firm, and it aims to keep growing its partner base, hoping to eventually establish an acquiring relationship with nearly all banks. “JCB is aiming to expand our acceptance base globally by establishing alliances and partnerships with regional partners, such as Discover Financial Services in the US,” says Sannomiya, who saw his US acquiring base triple with the 2006 Discover deal to 3 million, which is 1 million more than what it has in Japan. “We also have a relationship with China UnionPay (CUP) for acceptance in China, they are our acquirer. This gives us access to 110,000 [merchants], the same as MasterCard and Visa,” Sannomiya adds. Not all of CUP’s acceptance points are available to outside card associations. CUP’s conflicts with the global card giants are well-documented, and the value that JCBI sees in a partnership with the Chinese payments player against a “common challenger” made it willing to share its 30 years of experience i... Please login to read the complete article. If you already have an account, you can login now or subscribe/register.
Categories: CEO Interviews, Japan, Market Developments, Payments, Retail Bankingceo,Japan,mktdev,Payments,retail, CEO Interviews,Japan,Market Developments,Payments,Retail Banking, JCB, CUP
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