JCB (Japan Credit Bureau) certified OpenWay's WAY4 solution to issue and acquire its plastic cards. The certification was carried out as part of a co-project between OpenWay, a leading developer and vendor of next-generation processing solutions, and a Thailand-based processing centre.
Kevin Francis Wong, CEO of OpenWay Asia, evaluated this event as follows: "JCB, working with 320 financial institutions worldwide, has great prospects both in Asia and globally, and it is very important for us to enable our clients to work with this payment system. Presently, JCB cooperates with 11.7 million merchants and spans 189 countries and territories. JCB cards are now issued in 18 countries, with 51.6 million cardholders."
This is good news for all OpenWay's clients, i.e. more than 70 leading banks and processing centres in 15 countries. OpenWay has become JCB's certified vendor; now Japanese cards – credit, corporate, fleet, and others – may be added to OpenWay's clients' portfolios, which already include products of Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Diners Club.
JCB cards are currently accepted by 24 million merchants in 190 countries, and there are more than 20 branches of this payment system worldwide. More than 80 million JCB cards have been issued, of which 15 million were issued and are in use outside Japan. In the past 2 years, JCB has made a significant step in the global expansion: the number of cards issued outside Japan has increased by 60% and the number of merchants accepting cards has grown by 20%.