VeriTrans to Provide Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare with Credit Card Payment Service to the National Pension Fund

VeriTrans Inc (HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Hiroshi Shino; VeriTrans), a subsidiary of Digital Garage, Inc. (TSE first section: 4819; HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director, President Executive Officer and Group CEO: Kaoru Hayashi; DG), has been consigned by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to conduct management of card numbers and other operations relevant to the payment of national pension fund contributions via credit card. The consignment will apply from October 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018.

■Background
By enabling the use of credit cards in payment of national pension fund contributions, the government aims to make payment more convenient for citizens and to ensure a stable influx of contributions to the national pension fund. The service began operation as part of payment environment improvement efforts by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (formerly the Social Insurance Agency) in 2008. By selecting credit card payments for their contributions, citizens will enable automatic transmission of their payments and also earn points from their credit card company. Since the service began, 780,000 credit card payments^*1 were made in 2009, and that number nearly doubled to 1,510,000^*2 by 2015, illustrating the expanding rate of credit card payments.

■VeriTrans Credit Card Payment Services
VeriTrans’ credit card payment services include many important features that are necessary for payments by validating a credit card and using information from the cardholder’s fixed ID to implement continual automatic payment and continued verification of card number and expiration date, as well as automatic updates of such information and other functions necessary to effectively manage credit card payment.

VeriTrans also fully complies with PCI DSS, a global security standard co-created by five international credit card companies to ensure the security of credit card information. As such, it possesses a secure environment and supervisory system that meets the high standard required by domestic financial institutions.

■Future Development
Under the “Japan Revival Plan” promoted by the Japanese government, the nation aims for convenient and efficient cashless payment services to be widespread by 2020. A key part of that effort is enabling the spread of electronic payment for civil and public fees, including all variety of taxes, insurance premiums, processing fees and usage fees.

As a leader in the payment services industry, which has now grown into a basic social infrastructure, VeriTrans will continue to support efforts to improve the efficiency of government collections, as well as the convenience of everyday citizens, by working alongside fellow DG group member econtext to promote payment solutions in the area of public funds.

^{*1 Source: Japan Pension Service, “Annual Report 2010”
*2 Source: Japan Pension Service, “Annual Report 2015”}

[About VeriTrans] https://www.veritrans.co.jp/
A payment provider that carries out online payment initiatives for the Digital Garage Group. Recently they have also provided offline payment services, including the use of Mobile POS and mobile barcodes. As a leader in the payment services industry, which has now grown into a basic social infrastructure, VeriTrans will work with DG Group member econtext to offer advice to government institutions and the credit card industry, along with speedy service that meets the needs generated by trends in business and policy. Such efforts will support expansion of convenient solutions, along with a safe and secure environment, as required by EC businesses and consumers.