Investigating the design of the retail payment system: Focusing on the retail payment sector in Japan

Abstract

Globally, a variety of innovative technologies are emerging and traditional economic activities are gradually shifting to the digital economy. Among these, in the retail payment sector, which deals with customer contact and payment information, a trend to review interbank retail payment systems is occurring in many countries. The UK initiative has led the way, and similar efforts to instantiate and remake retail payment systems into new systems have been underway in various countries. One of the reasons of the reviews is the fact that, from the user's point of view, there are many aspects of payment services provided by companies that are not user-friendly. In the Japanese retail payments sector, there are various issues such as lack of interoperability, and the government and the banking industry are working to improve these issues.

This paper focuses on providing recommendations for the Japanese case. It examines the state of the retail payment systems, considering the payment systems as a quasi-public social infrastructure that can affect all industries, rather than simply a system in the financial sector. More specifically, this paper focuses on the interbank retail fast payment systems and mobile payments based on it, while taking a broad view of the retail payment system, including its regulatory framework. There are various stakeholders with different perspectives in the retail payment system, and the central bank has a neutral perspective and can be the best entity that could provide the system. In reviewing the retail payment system, it is desirable for stakeholders to compare multiple design options and make decisions after clarifying the performance and functions they need. In the Japanese case, the best design option in the short term would be to utilize the banking industry's Cotra system while applying regulations to ensure interoperability, and in the long term, the central bank could provide the system, including the issuance of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This paper aims to provide a new perspective to stakeholders of the Japanese retail payment system and contribute to the discussion on the future review of it.