JCB Co., Ltd., Japan's leading credit card company (headquarters in Tokyo, Isao Nakanishi, President and CEO) hosted a formal celebration in Beijing today commemorating 20 years of business in China. The events included a press conference at which JCB announced plans for granting licenses to a number of financial institutions in China to begin issuing JCB credit cards.

JCB was established in 1961 and is now Japan's largest credit card company and the only international credit card business to have originated in Asia. When more Japanese began to travel worldwide at the start of the 1980's and the country's domestic card companies were entering into tie-ups with already established international credit card associations, JCB made the decision to go global as an independent and launched its own international brand in 1981. The following year JCB entered into an agreement with Bank of China, initiating merchant acquiring in China before any other international brand. Now with agreements with major commercial banks including Bank of China, Bank of Communication, CITIC Industrial Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China as well as recent tie-ups with Hong Kong-based financial institutions such as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Bank of East Asia for acquiring on the mainland, the JCB merchant network throughout China extends to more than 30,000 merchants.

January 29's celebration opened at 4:00 PM at the Beijing International Club Hotel attended by approximately 150 invitees from top executives of partner banking institutions, representatives of government agencies, major merchants and top management from the China offices of Japan-based corporations. JCB president Isao Nakanishi conveyed his gratitude for the support provided JCB by its partners and friends throughout the past 20 years, and continued by stating that "we are looking forward to seeing China's financial institutions issuing the JCB card to the people of China, and to sharing with all of you the expertise we have built in over 40 years in the credit card industry". Mr. Nakanishi expressed hopes that the beginning of full-scale credit card issuance would prove useful to China's consumers and contribute to the financial health of both China and Japan.

JCB is planning to make the most of the business opportunity presented for card issuing in the major market that is China, whose need for international credit cards will continue to increase with its entry into the WTO and hosting of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.