Tokyo Japan, April 15, 2003 - JCB International Co., Ltd., the international arm of major Japanese credit card company JCB Co. Ltd., and Thailand's largest commercial bank, Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited have signed a licensing agreement for merchant acquiring and servicing, including sales processing to begin in April 2003. Bangkok Bank has a 40% share of the credit card market in Thailand, and with this agreement the bank's approximately 50,000 new merchants will begin phased acceptance of the JCB credit card. In addition the bank will be starting new JCB merchant acquiring and merchant sales transaction processing.

JCBI entered into a merchant servicing agreement with the Siam Commercial Bank Public Co., Ltd. in 1989 and issuing of JCB cards by the same company began in 1990. AEON Thana Sinsap began issuing operations under license in 2000. JCBI has been focusing on local issuing in south-east Asia for some time now, and with this new agreement with the country's largest commercial bank, Thailand's JCB cardmembers, as well as travelers from around the world, will be able to use their JCB card much more widely within the country. In addition the alliance with Bangkok Bank is expected to result in broader cardmember and merchant bases, with greater acceptance and recognition for the JCB brand.

The Thai economy has recovered from the significant fall it experienced during the 1997 currency and financial crisis, and the loosening of credit card regulations by the central bank of Thailand in 2000 and April of 2002 resulted in a rapid increase in the number of cards issued and sales turnover. Although at the end of last year card regulations were tightened once again, reducing the heated pace of growth, continuing expansion of the market is expected.

This new agreement between JCBI and Bangkok Bank will contribute to the increasing strength of the JCB brand worldwide in its international merchant network and cardmembership.