Create Social Value / Pursue Economic Value

Takano (SMCC): As we aim for further development of Olive, we believed that collaboration with external companies possessing excellent technologies and services is essential. Among them, the household account book and asset management service Money Forward ME was extremely attractive as a partner for building an open financial platform deeply rooted in customers’ lives. We were convinced that by integrating with Olive, we could provide new value never seen before, which led to this partnership.

Suezawa (Money Forward Home): Thank you very much. Our Group has always aimed to become a money platform, and we deeply resonated with the idea of Olive evolving into an open service. By joining hands with Olive, which has a strong customer base as a bank and card company and is steadily increasing its membership, we strongly felt that we could realize a new service where anyone can enjoyably continue managing their money.

Takano: Money Forward ME boasts the top domestic share and an overwhelming number of affiliated financial institutions, and I believe that this large number of connections leads to high quality and reliability. Not only do they provide data, but their clear vision of using that data to improve customers’ lives is also wonderful.

Suezawa: By combining Money Forward Home’s know-how in visualizing money with Olive’s payment functions and strong customer base, I have high expectations that we can provide a new financial experience, seamlessly managing and utilizing money.

Takano: While advancing the project, I was also impressed by the speed of both parties. In particular, the rapid release of the V Point linkage function in Money Forward ME demonstrated their high in-house development capability and execution power. On the other hand, as a financial institution, the first prerequisite is that we must of course comply with rules and processes that must be observed, but we have worked with an awareness of swift decision-making. We will continue to match the speed of Money Forward Home and respond flexibly and quickly.

Suezawa: We are grateful to have contributed to creating a safe and secure service through repeated discussions, and we would like to continue exploring further avenues of collaboration. For example, to further enhance the convenience of Olive’s advantage of mobile comprehensive financial services, we would like to strengthen the integration between Olive and Money Forward ME so that users can check transaction data from any financial institution in the Olive app and seamlessly use it for actual transactions, thereby improving usability.

Takano: We design services with customer convenience as our top priority, while also capturing future trends such as the growing need for asset formation and increased digital usage among high-net-worth individuals, aiming to provide valuable digital financial services to all customers. Our greatest goal is to grow Olive into the most trusted financial service for our customers.

Yamamoto (SMCC): SMCC recognized the significance of travel in its quest to go beyond financial services and offer customers value in every aspect of their daily lives. We concluded that HTS would be the ideal partner for Olive in the travel industry, where prices are high and the shift to online activities is advanced, if we could leverage HTS’s innovative technology and global deployment capabilities.

Lanfant (HTS): HTS was aware of the importance of the Japanese market from the outset. With its solid customer base, SMCC was the prime candidate to partner with us in offering our unique value to Japanese customers. In particular, SMCC’s commitment to innovation, as seen with Olive, matched our vision of redefining travel experiences through technology, so we feel that our partnership is very meaningful.

Yamamoto: There are many travel reservation websites. However, in addition to featuring more than 500,000 hotels worldwide, HTS is far superior to any other in terms of accurate flight price prediction technology and the vast amount of data and machine-learning algorithms that drive said technology. HTS also understood Olive’s open platform concept. I feel that the flexible collaborative framework established by both parties helped realize the smooth execution of the V Trip project.

Lanfant: This partnership can provide benefits to many people. Combining our technology with Olive’s financial services and V Point program enables customers to use V Points for travel and get the best deals on flights with peace of mind. For HTS, the collaboration with Olive means it can access a huge and active customer base in Japan.

Yamamoto: As you said, combining the powerful asset that is the V Point program with HTS’s advanced technology is highly significant. I believe that our deep understanding of the Japanese market was essential to achieving this synergy.

Lanfant: The HTS team has extensive global experience, and it worked to understand circumstances specific to the Japanese market and implement localization. Establishing a dedicated local HTS team in Japan and ensuring effective communication helped us meet the needs and expectations of Japanese customers. We were impressed with not only the thoroughness and professionalism of the SMCC team members but also their deep understanding of and ability to quickly learn about the travel industry.

Yamamoto: Thank you for your kind words. First, we aim to make V Trip the best platform for SMCC cardholders, including Olive users, and V Point members to book travel arrangements. In the future, we will further strengthen V Trip’s integration with Olive. For example, we are examining the possibility of offering special travel plans specifically for Olive users.

Lanfant: HTS will continue to incorporate new technology and develop functions and services that benefit customers. In particular, package deal offerings that combine accommodation with flight or train options have the potential to enhance convenience and savings for customers, so we are very eager to partner with SMCC on this initiative.

Yamamoto: SMCC will maintain an emphasis on openness and seek to create new and comprehensive financial services that exceed the expectations of customers through collaboration with HTS and a variety of other external partners.