ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that Itochu and POCKET CARD CO., LTD. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Haruo Takagaki, President; hereinafter “ POCKET CARD”), a subsidiary of ITOCHU, have begun offering the Gaitame.Com Card with Gaitame.Com Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Jun Takeuchi, President & Chief Executive Officer; hereinafter “Gaitame.Com”), an equity-method associated company. Points earned for purchases using the Gaitame.Com Card can be used for foreign exchange savings investments.

In a world where people are living 100 years or longer, demand for asset management is increasing against the backdrop of the weaker yen and inflation. In 2022, foreign exchange (FX) margin transactions totaled 12,074 trillion yen,*¹ a record high. This indicates that demand for foreign currency investments as a means of managing assets is increasing. Many people, however, hesitate to invest cash, and the investment of points, which is something that people can easily start, is attracting interest.

Gaitame.Com, a major FX transaction company, offers the industry's lowest fees, FX Point, their original point program, a foreign currency deposit service for medium- to long-term investment, Rakuraku FX Tsumitate (hereinafter “Rakutsumu”), and the delivery of high-quality FX-related information via its subsidiary, Gaitame.Com Research Institute Ltd. Their strength, the ability to thoroughly provide services from the viewpoint of the customer, has enabled them to expand their user base.

POCKET CARDand Gaitame.Com have jointly started to offer the Gaitame.Com Card, the FX industry's first card whose points can be used for foreign exchange savings investments. The card returns 3%*² of spending using the card to the card user by awarding FX Points to them. On Rakutsumu, the FX Points awarded can be exchanged for yen which can be used for savings investments. One point can be exchanged for one yen. The Gaitame.Com Card enables its users to start FX transactions from small amount without using cash. The card provides an environment where people who have not ever invested and other novice investors, particularly young people, are able to choose FX transactions without hesitation as a means of asset formation.

ITOCHU made Gaitame.Com an equity-method associated company in September 2022. Taking advantage of extensive networks inside and outside the Group, ITOCHU has helped Gaitame.Com expand its customer base. The retail banking business, one of the strengths of ITOCHU, has been cooperating with Gaitame.Com.
Using the Gaitame.Com Card issued by POCKET CARD, a Group company, ITOCHU helps Gaitame.Com and POCKET CARDto expand their customer base. ITOCHU will continue to take a market-oriented approach to expand services and develop a variety of next-generation financial services to meet the needs of individuals for asset formation.