Their continued partnership, which started with the signing of an agreement in January 2022, is highlighted by this collaboration. The opening of the gateway comes after other successful initiatives including the December 2023 central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot and the agreement to allow JCB acceptance for all HLB merchants.

Acquirers and payment facilitators can give their retail merchants access to JCB's global network of more than 156 million card users by using Soft Space's API specification. This eliminates the requirement for a direct connection to JCB and allows for smooth transactions.


"The launch of the JCB payment gateway complements the fact that Malaysia is the most visited country in Southeast Asia in 2023," said Joel Tay, CEO of Soft Space. This will not only improve the ease, security, and smoothness of cross-border payments, but it also fits in nicely with our larger objective of showcasing Soft Space's technology in other verticals like transit and in-flight payments internationally.

Soft Space hopes to expedite the addition of further acquirers and payment facilitators throughout the APAC region and beyond, having recently welcomed senangPay, a Malaysian payment facilitator, as the first-ever JCB payment gateway member.
 

SenangPay CEO Mansor Abd Rahman called the integration a "significant milestone" for its merchants.

"Providing a variety of payment choices and letting customers use their favorite methods of payment not only broadens SenangPay's payment solutions portfolio, but also helps our merchants engage with Japanese visitors and expatriates in Malaysia."

Online retailers
 

Since more and more Japanese travelers make their reservations online, e-commerce businesses, especially those in the travel industry, stand to benefit. By using facilitators to process JCB payments, they may take advantage of the growing e-commerce spending of JCB cardholders, which increased by 52% between 2021 and 2022.

The president and CEO of JCB International Co Ltd., Yoshiki Kaneko, described the significance of internet purchasing in the modern consumer's behavior.


"We are excited to provide this new feature in partnership with Soft Space in order to better serve our JCB card customers and merchants and take advantage of the expanding e-commerce market. We are even more convinced that our connection with Malaysia's top fintech company is essential to our development since this signifies another significant milestone in our strategic engagement with Soft Space.