Beyond Swipe and Tap: Rewriting the Rules

The roundtable discussion at Japan FinTech Festival brought together leading experts from banking, fintech, technology and regulatory backgrounds to explore the current state and future potential of account-to-account (A2A) payments in Japan. The wide-ranging discussion surfaced several key insights and themes that will shape the trajectory of A2A in the years ahead.

Compared to markets like China and India where A2A payments via mobile apps have become ubiquitous, Japan has seen slower adoption. During the panel, legacy banking infrastructure, regulatory constraints, limited use cases beyond P2P payments, and a highly fragmented payments landscape were all cited as factors tempering growth. However, the confluence of recent FinTech innovations, changing consumer behaviours, and emerging open banking frameworks is creating new tailwinds for A2A.