President and Representative Director,
Epos Card Co., Ltd.

At the moment, Epos Card is advancing a strategy aimed at maximizing the share of EPOS card payments in household finances through an approach of promoting the use of EPOS cards for payments related to rent, utilities, and investments. Through this strategy, we have achieved a 30% year-on-year increase in revenue from rent guarantee services, despite the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, as customers make regular payments for rent guarantee services using their EPOS card, they become more likely to use this card as their main credit card, which in turn increases rates of upgrade to Gold cards and subsequently improves lifetime value. Encouraging customers to use their cards in such manners intrinsically tied to their everyday lives will thereby enable us to create stable revenue foundations that are resilient to changes in the operating environment.

We are also actively engaging in open innovation with co-creative investees. Through our collaboration with eco-friendly electricity provider Minna-denryoku, for example, we made application for renewable energy, something shown to be in high demand by EPOS cardholder surveys, much easier by allowing customers to register their card data for this purpose. This initiative is not just aimed at contributing to society; we also expect massive returns in terms of profit as customers increasingly use their EPOS cards to make various payments. Going forward, we will continue to develop new services that are highly convenient for customers from the perspective of resolving social issues while growing our business.

Through the ongoing advancement of such initiatives, we aim to achieve continuous business growth and help improve the corporate value of MARUI GROUP.