Paystand Inks Digital Payment Platform Deal With JCB

Blockchain-enabled commercial payments platform Paystand entered into an initial partnership with JCB to offer the first end-to-end digital payments platform for JCB customers and Japanese enterprises. The proposed solution takes on a significant gap in Japan’s current B2B payments market, and provides the corporate subset of JCB’s 130 million customers with an alternative to legacy payment methods, such as credit cards and cash, per an announcement.

While Japan’s B2B payments market accounts for $10 trillion in annual volume, it is still dominated by cash transactions, as are many markets. Only 1 percent of Japan’s commercial payments are currently made by credit card, and an even smaller portion are made via technology like bank transfers.

According to the announcement, “The reliance on pre-internet solutions for commercial payments causes significant and measurable economic drag, with estimates ranging from $500 billion to $1 trillion in lost productivity and ROI to businesses.”

Paystand CEO Jeremy Almond said in the announcement, “The challenges faced by B2B companies across the globe are similar: They are burdened by a commercial payment infrastructure mired in pre-internet technology. As a result, they are saddled with a legacy system rife with costly transaction fees, manual processes and delays. Our relationship with JCB is yet another indication that enterprises in all markets are demanding easy, secure, frictionless business payments that leverage digital technology. JCB is an iconic, globally recognized brand in financial services, and we are excited to partner with them to introduce better business payment technology to their customers and other companies throughout Japan and Asia.”

Over the last year, Paystand has accelerated its partnerships and product development to back the international need for digital payments, expanding into Mexico, Canada and Asia. The announcement noted that “the initial agreement with JCB establishes Paystand as a core payment technology in Japan, and will offer Japanese businesses a modern toolkit for finance and payments to keep up with today’s flexible, software-driven approach to corporate growth.”