Japan FTC Announces Fintech Follow-Up Survey Plan

Tokyo, March 31 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Fair Trade Commission has announced a plan to conduct a follow-up survey on the competition of financial services using fintech.

The antimonopoly watchdog will check whether the competitive environment has improved for new entrants to the cashless payment market, including those providing smartphone settlement services using quick response, or QR, codes, according to an announcement Wednesday.

Users of smartphone settlement services need to register their bank account numbers on apps. Meanwhile, settlement services providers need to use NTT Data Corp.'s <9613> financial settlement infrastructure.

Service providers pay commissions to banks, while NTT Data receives system usage fees from both service providers and banks.

In a report on its previous survey, released in April 2020, the FTC said that the usage fees to NTT Data and interbank fund transfer fees should be reviewed. This proposal led to declines in the fees.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]