Japan has one of the world’s longest serving IP systems — yet, perhaps surprisingly, it’s still very much a developing landscape.
Launched in 1973, The Zengin System is Japan’s interbank domestic fund transfer system and plays a crucial role in Japan’s payments infrastructure — responsible for processing fund transfers between partner financial institutions. Zengin has gone through numerous updates over the years to reflect the changing needs of domestic consumers and the evolving payments business environment.
The latest seventh generation Zengin System launched in November 2019 and incorporates features such as enhanced capacity and processing performance, as well as improved safety and reliability. A prior upgrade to the system in October 2018 to incorporate IP support increased the availability of the system to a 24/7/365 basis for transfers with a value of less than JPY100m ($0.9M).
Only financial institutions can participate in the Zengin System and all deposit-taking banks currently participate. End users can initiate fund transfers through participating banks and can make P2P, C2B, B2B and B2C payments.