[ CSS and GMO Epsilon start collaboration ]
CSS and GMO Epsilon Begin Collaboration to Launch Payment Management Service "TREE PAYMENT－nyuukin totsugou zero VAce －" in March 2026
~Issuing a dedicated account for each bill to reduce Bank transfer of work to "zero" and accelerate DX in office work~

CSS Co., Ltd. (President & Chief Executive Officer: Izumi Hiroaki, hereinafter referred to as CSS), which is a 100% subsidiary of Sumitomo Life Insurance Company, and GMO Epsilon, Inc. ^(*1) of the GMO Internet Group (President & Chief Executive Officer: Tomoyuki Murakami, hereinafter referred to as "GMO Epsilon") is a collaboration between the two companies, and through the collaboration between the two companies, GMO Epsilon has introduced the Bank transfer (Virtual Account) function of the online infrastructure of payments" fincode byGMO" by CSS, and CSS has introduced the payment management service "TREE PAYMENT ^(*2)" by CSS Bank transfer. -Zero Deposit Matching VAce (Base)-" will be available from March 2026.

• *1 GMO Epsilon is a consolidated company of GMO Payment Gateway, Inc..
• *2 "TREE PAYMENT" is a registered trademark of CSS and Densan System Co.,Ltd..

With this service, companies can automatically issue a dedicated transfer account (virtual account) for each invoice, making it possible to grasp and manage the payment status in near real time. This eliminates the tedious manual matching operations that occurred in traditional Bank transfer, greatly improves the efficiency of back-office operations, including tracing work, and shortens the lead time for payment to be reflected.

<Image of the effect of introducing the service>

【Background of Collaboration】

Bank transfer is used not only in business-to-business transactions but also in various scenarios such as rent, monthly fees, and membership fees, but there is still a heavy burden on confirming payments. According to the specifications of Zengin Data Telecommunication System (Zengin System), the name of the transfer requester can be arbitrarily set on the payer's side, so the collector has no choice but to collude with uncertain information. For example, in cases where the name of the student and the transferee is different, such as the monthly fee for cram schools, manual work is essential, and the workload of such work has become normal. In addition, paper invoice and receipt collection took time from payment completion to payment confirmation, leading to a decrease in productivity in the administrative department and inconvenience for payers.
The two companies will share these issues and start collaborating with the aim of solving the "invisible troubles" related to Bank transfer.
GMO Epsilon has a Actual of providing Bank transfer (Virtual Account) through "fincode byGMO" and promoting the automation and efficiency of deposit clearing, and CSS has a wealth of business knowledge related to Bank transfer. In this collaboration, we will combine the strengths of both companies to jointly promote back-office DX for more diverse businesses.

[Overview of "TREE PAYMENT－nyuukin totsugou zero VAce －"]

In this collaboration, GMO Epsilon will use the Bank transfer (Virtual Account) function of the online infrastructure of payments" fincode byGMO" provided by GMO Epsilon as the engine, and utilize the business know-how that CSS has cultivated so far to develop and provide a payment management service that can be intuitively and simply used by on-site personnel at merchants.

<Shared Role
CSS: Development, provision, implementation support, and support for TREE PAYMENT－nyuukin totsugou zero VAce －, a deposit management service
GMO Epsilon: online at infrastructure of payments" fincode byGMO" Bank transfer (Virtual Account) functionality provided

<Service concept>
1. Eliminate the complicated hassle that has become commonplace with Bank transfer.
② Minimize collection costs (= reduce personnel costs by streamlining administrative work)

<Main features>
1) Issuance of a payee account (VA): A unique account will be issued for each invoice and customer.
② Visualization of payment status: Payment status is displayed in real time. You can see the surplus or deficit at a glance.
3. Status management: The search and filtering functions allow you to quickly find the information you need by narrowing down your search by customer name, payment deadline, payment status, etc. You can share the status of responses, such as "Completed," "refund handling," and "Reminder handling," so you can always keep track of the next action.

[About service provision period]

Availability: March 2026 (planned)
*We are currently preparing to provide services for first users during the above period.
*If you are interested in the pre-introduction or service details, please contact [Service Inquiries] below.

[Future developments]

We plan to expand the following functions in this service in the future.
(1) Support for mass issuance of transfer-only accounts (virtual accounts)
(2) Function to complete only if the bill amount and deposit amount match payment
(3) Data linkage via API, etc.
The two companies will continue to work together to accelerate the DX of a company's entire back-office operations and provide solutions that eliminate hidden troubles.

[Comments from each company]

< CSS Co., Ltd. President & Chief Executive Officer Izumi Hiroaki >
Bank transfer are an essential payment method for many companies, but the process behind them, known as "reconciliation," has long been a major issue that has hindered corporate productivity. Through this collaboration with GMO Epsilon, we believe we can fundamentally solve this issue by combining the robust and flexible payment system infrastructure of "fincode byGMO" with our business expertise. We hope that this collaboration will help eliminate the pain points associated with corporate payment and contribute to the growth of business in Japan as a whole.

< GMO Epsilon, Inc. Director Executive Vice President Kazunari Taguchi >
We are honored that CSS has adopted "fincode byGMO" for their new service. We believe that by collaborating with CSS and combining the business knowledge and technologies of both companies, we will be able to further promote digital transformation in corporate back-office operations. GMO Epsilon will continue to create new value as a partner to CSS, and together we will provide unprecedented user experiences.

【About "fincode byGMO"】

"fincode byGMO" is an online infrastructure of payments that helps startups grow. Not only does it solve the payment field challenges that arise before and after the launch of a new service, but it also seamlessly delivers the scaled value required as the business phase evolves.
The immediate provision of a test environment, rapid web review, and SDK ^(*3) and UI components ^(*4) that reduce development man-hours make it possible to implement the payment system in a short lead time. In addition, through REST APIs ^(*5) and other extended functions, we support the "next step" of the introduction business, such as "support for unique payment flows," "addition of payment method for user expansion," "addition of subscription plans," and "expansion to a platform-type business model."
By providing these functions with no initial or monthly costs, and a fee structure that minimizes "hidden costs" such as account maintenance fees and transfer fees, we reduce the burden of cost management for introducers and provide an environment where they can concentrate on the growth of their services.
Based on a design concept that takes scalability into consideration, we support the "MCP (Model Context Protocol)" in line with the evolution of UX in the AI era, and are driving a new user experience through the fusion of AI agents and payment.

• *3 Abbreviation for Software Development Kit. fincode byGMO provides a library that makes it easy to incorporate APIs.
• *4 A function that generates and provides a credit card information input form.
• *5 Abbreviation for Representational State Transfer API. fincode byGMO allows you to work with data such as payment and subscriptions through a resource-oriented and easy-to-understand REST API.

[ About CSS Co., Ltd.

Since its establishment in 1976, CSS has been a collection agency company with Account transfer, payment collection, and collection agency services as its core, providing services to a variety of industries such as insurance, medical care, nursing care, and education. As a 100% subsidiary of Sumitomo Life Insurance Company, we have dealings with more than 5,100 customers nationwide based on high reliability and a stable foundation, and safely and reliably execute and process more than 55 million Account transfer cases annually ^(*6).。 In addition, from 2021, we have also developed new services that contribute to DX, such as TREE PAYMENT, which enables multi-payment, and an Internet account acceptance service that allows account setup to be completed online.
Based on the trust and business know-how we have cultivated through services such as Account transfer over many years, we will continue to provide solutions with a variety of options and the power of co-creation to solve customers' "invisible troubles" and "solve social issues". We will continue to promote DX in payment field through "co-creation" with partner companies and open up a bright future together with our customers.

• *6 FY2024 Actual

【About GMO Epsilon, Inc.】

We provide startups, tech companies, and SME businesses with online payment services fincode byGMO and Epsilon by GMO to help them grow their businesses.
" fincode byGMO" is an online infrastructure of payments designed for startups. In addition to E-commerce, it supports various business models such as platform and subscription types, and can be implemented in a short period of time. In June 2025, it became the first PSP in Japan to support "MCP (Model Context Protocol)" ^(*7) and continue to evolve, such as enabling collaboration with AI agents. Epsilon by GMO is a payment processing services that allows you to deploy a variety of payment method at once with no initial costs or transaction processing fees ^(*8). It eliminates the hassle of individual contract and helps e-commerce businesses expand their sales opportunities.
We also support the cash flow improvement and growth of businesses through finance-related services such as Cycle by GMO, a sales-linked business card, lending, and Remittance Service.
As a consolidated company of TSE Prime-listed GMO payment gateways, GMO Epsilon provides a safe environment with Privacy Mark certification and PCI DSS and ISMS compliant security standards.

• *7 Announced on June 19, 2025, "For the first time in Japan, "fincode byGMO" supports MCP, making it the best payment platform in the AI era"
  （URL：https://www.gmo-pg.com/news/press/gmo-paymentgateway/2025/0619.html）
• *8 Transaction processing fees are fees charged for each communication between credit card companies such as credit card authorization (obtaining an authorization number) and billing.