NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Japanese megabank Mizuho will reportedly move forward with its planned launch of a new digital currency and payments service using QR codes in stores and for funds transfers–with plans to cut the fees merchants will pay to accept the new payments scheme, as compared with credit cards.
The big bank plans to launch in March, joined by a number of smaller local and regional Japanese banks. Mizuho announced the plan last year, calling it the “J-Coin” project, although it does not use cryptocurrency, as earlier reported. The push is separate from a plan by Mizuho and Japan’s two other megabanks, MUFG and Sumitomo Mitsui, to introduce a standardized QR code-based mobile payments platform for Japan in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And these banks are not the only payments players in Japan gearing up with new payments services as they continue what has up until now been a largely futile war on cash, as NFC Times reported this week.
The new digital currency, which may or may not be branded as J-Coin, would be pegged to the Japanese yen. The reports of the planned launch indicates Mizuho has received approval from Japanese regulators for the new service.
