The country’s first digital consumer finance service has been launched in Japan. Source: Pixabay.com

In Japan, a local fintech company Smartpay launched Smartpay Bank Direct, the country’s first digital consumer finance service, that pronides customers the opportunity to pay online for purchases in installments using their bank accounts

The scale of Smartpay Bank Direct is quite impressive, since the service is supported by 67 partner banks throughout Japan.

Smartpay was created in the summer of 2021 by industry professionals who previously worked at Instagram, Standard Chartered Bank, Facebook, Stripe, Adyen and Mastercard. The mobile application developed by this brand received a positive response from Japanese buyers of various goods and sellers who highly appreciate simple and fast digital solutions.

Smartpay’s business strategy consists of two stages. During the implementation of the first stage, the company focused on providing access to the digital economy, based on the principle of “Buy now, pay later”, for the maximum number of users. These efforts have created an ecosystem for the transition to a payment system that doesn’t involve the use of cash.

Now the company is gradually moving to the implementation of the second stage of its business strategy. Now, emphasis will be placed on providing intelligent financial services to clients with medium and high income levels.

Smartpay pursues the goal of digital transformation of Japan’s financial industry. According to Sam Ahmed, CEO of the company, digitalization allows you to manage cash flows quickly, safely and intelligently.

The development of digital services in Japan does not stop with this mobile application. In September, it became known that PayPal to acquire Japan’s buy now, pay later provider.