Kuala Lumpur, 24th October 2022 – Japan’s only international payment brand JCB Co., Ltd. (“JCB”) has launched “JCBDC” (JCB Digital Currency) pilot project with identity technologies no. 1  IDEMIA and the world’s leading fintech company Soft Space Sdn. Bhd. (“Soft Space”). JCBDC pilot will develop a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) payment solution and conduct a pilot test with Tokyo merchants.

Over the past few years, central banks in many countries and regions have been testing CBDCs that
should soon be widely accepted by consumers and merchants. However, merchants might be reluctant
to accept them, and mass-market rollout may be held up by people without smartphones, like children
and the elderly, who could find the user interfaces and payment systems hugely challenging.
As a result, JCB will have CBDC acceptance tested using existing JCB Contactless – JCB’s EMV® based
contactless payment, merchants, POS terminals and plastic card-based user interfaces, with guidance
from IDEMIA and Soft Space.

JCB, IDEMIA and Soft Space will conclude payment system development by late 2022 and conduct the
pilot test with Tokyo merchants until March 2023.

“It gives me great honour to announce our collaboration with IDEMIA and Soft Space on this project,”
said Koremitsu Sannomiya, Board Member, Senior Executive Officer of JCB. “This project proves that we
can use existing payment acceptance hardware for new CBDC payment systems, which is a huge benefit
for both consumers and merchants.”

“We at IDEMIA firmly believe that CBDCs are redefining the very fundamentals of the payment
ecosystem. We’re proud that our ability to innovate has enabled CBDC payments with existing card and
POS terminal hardware. IDEMIA’s, JCB’s and Soft Space’s joint payment system expertise will usher in
worldwide CBDC growth,” said Romain Zanolo, IDEMIA Managing Director APAC Financial Institutions.

“We’re thrilled to be first in the world to trial CBDC acceptance on SoftPOS alongside our partners JCB
and IDEMIA. Although CBDCs are still in their infancy, this pilot takes us forward from theory to reality,
by harnessing our in-store payment experience and existing payment platform expertise,” said Soft
Space CEO Joel Tay.