Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (our corporate group will hereinafter be referred to as "SMBC Group") and GMO Payment Gateway, Inc. (GMO-PG) have a history of working together, which includes partnership in e-commerce payment processing business on the back of the rapid expansion of online businesses. We are pleased to announce that we have started discussion on establishing of the "next generation payment platform" targeting operates that support cashless payments, aiming to provide high value-added services in the changing payment market.

SMBC Group with an edge in card businesses and real world payments, and GMO-PG with an edge in online payments aim to collaborate to build a next-generation payment platform that comprehensively supports both online and real payments and covers various payment methods collectively and seamlessly under this initiative. The idea is to realize an environment in which business operators "just need to connect to a single payment platform to provide various payment methods that respond to various demands at low cost".

We will aim to quickly and flexibly support various payment methods that include emerging QR code payments and "Ginko Pay"*, let alone credit card, e-money, debit card and other traditional payment methods.

We will have intense discussions, and will make an announcement when we reach a basic agreement on the new business.

* Ginko Pay is an immediate direct-debiting service through a smartphone app that links to user's accounts at the banks that use the platform system provided by GMO-PG