In 2018 the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) released a document titled Cashless Vision evaluating Japan’s current standing on cashless transactions and settlements, and outlining the actions it will take to achieve its goal of increasing cashless settlements’ ratio to 40% by 2025 and outlining its intention to eventually reach 80% beyond that date.

Mr. Nihei, will be using his experience in the industry to explore the role of credit cards and discuss the key role they will be playing in meeting the above goal and driving the increase of cashless settlements. He will also outline the benefits, challenges and overall impact on the financial services industry and beyond that an increases in cashless settlements and credit card transactions will have..

In his presentation he will:

• Introduce a definition for “cashless” and delve into why credit cards are central to this issue and their impact on the country and financial services industry.
• Explore credit cards as a leading medium for cashless transactions and define the terminology and concepts behind them.
• Explore the credit card industry’s past and present. At which stage of development is this industry currently in Japan, what is the technology and where is it potentially headed (locally and globally)?
• Set out the key stakeholders in the industry, and outline who and how they can benefit from their usage.

Tatsufumi Nihei, Director

Tatsufumi Nihei has been with ABeam Consulting since April 2014, leading the firms payment, clearing and settlement industry business lines, both in Japan and abroad by managing a newly created specialist team.

Mr. Nihei has over 25 years of experience in the payment practice, including 13 years at a Japanese mega bank and 10 years at an international credit card firm.

Currently, he is focusing on Fintech’s impact on the global payment framework: technological developments, as well as the effect on legal, regulatory and, more specifically, improvements on ease, accuracy and safety of payment activity. Other key themes and projects for Mr. Nihei include: “cashless”, ”payment eco-system” ,“inbound” and “technology”.