ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that ITOCHU began to provide salary prepayment service, "Prepay Pocket" to the employees of FamilyMart Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Kensuke Hosomi, Representative Director and President; hereinafter "FamilyMart")'s stores and franchisees around Japan through ITOCHU's fully owned subsidiary MONEY COMMUNICATIONS INC. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Makoto Tanaka, President & Chief Executive Officer; hereinafter "MCI") that provides various financial services.

The salary prepayment service enables employees to receive salary payments in advance without waiting for specific payday. Given people’s diversifying workstyles and other circumstances, more and more companies are establishing salary prepayment services in order to acquire more human resources and prevent their outflow.
ITOCHU and MCI entered the salary prepayment service business under the name "Prepay pocket" in 2019. "Prepay pocket" enables users to receive earned money when needed by simply applying via smartphone with the lowest service fee the industry. It has been introduced by more and more businesses, including large companies, as the system is designed to minimize the complication of preparing advances and the clerical work related to transferring money for the companies using the service, in addition to increasing convenience for the employees.

FamilyMart, which introduced "Prepay pocket" as part of its enhancement of welfare and in support of its franchisees who are experiencing labor shortage, are expecting that the service will help in securing labor force, and in enhancing staffs’ retention rate, which are vital in store’s management. MCI has now fully launched a seamless system that connects to the attendance database automatically, which able to lessen the burden of franchisees through simple procedures in a safe and secure environment. The service will be gradually rolled out on more and more franchisees and stores to support the diverse work styles of approximately 200,000 employees working at FamilyMart stores around Japan.

In the retail finance field, ITOCHU is enhancing its lineup of comprehensive financial services through equity participation in FinTech ventures, centered on Pocket Card Co., Ltd. Positioning the salary prepayment service as one of the most important businesses leading to next-generation financial services, ITOCHU seeks to enhance its customer base including young people, create new consumer credit limits, and establish connections to digital currency as a new strategic move for the financial business. Thus, ITOCHU will diversify its points of customer contact and create new services derived from these points of contact.