ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has agreed with MYDC Co., LTD. (hereinafter “MYDC”) that it will acquire shares in MYDC through a private placement and will form a capital and business alliance with MYDC in the field of individual-type defined contribution pension plans (hereinafter “iDeCo”).

iDeCo is a pension plan where subscribers accumulate funds for themselves. Subscribers contribute (accumulate) monthly installments and invest the money in financial instruments of financial institutions that they choose. Subscribers can draw a pension or receive a lump-sum payment when they turn 60. Tax breaks are provided for iDeCo. It is a system that contributes to asset building in old age and has social significance. Only people in certain categories, including self-employed persons, have been eligible for iDeCo, but an amendment to the law in January 2017 will allow an additional 27 million people to subscribe for iDeCo. As a result, almost all of the working generation (67 million people) are eligible for the plan.

As an iDeCo management agency, MYDC accepts applications for subscription and provides information to subscribers. In collaboration with its parent company, MONEY DESIGN Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Tomoyoshi Hirose, President & CEO; hereinafter “Money Design”), MYDC uses a robo-advisor, which was developed by Money Design, to help subscribers choose financial instruments. The robo-advisor has enabled MYDC to choose instruments from around 10,000 issues worldwide and provide an optimum portfolio for each subscriber at a low cost. This support is a unique, breakthrough system that makes the choice of instruments easy. MYDC will tap demand primarily from people in their 20s and 30s who have not had any experience in investment, and who are the main target of Money Design.

ITOCHU will commence an iDeCo business through investment in MYDC. ITOCHU dispatches outside directors to MYDC to assist with management, system development, and sales promotion. In this way, ITOCHU will contribute to the expansion of iDeCo.

ITOCHU is promoting venture investment in Japan and overseas and views FinTech as one of its priority fields. It will continue to expand into new financial services that harness technology.