JCB Announces Google Pay Support

Japanese credit card company JCB has announced it will support Google Pay for in-store payments in the country.

It’s a modest win for Google Pay, the mobile payments platform that was recently rebranded from its previous moniker, Android Pay. In a statement announcing the support, JCB emphasized that the system will function through its own “QUICPay” contactless payment solution, a redundant branding assertion given that QUICPay is simply a contactless payment card that can be linked to a user’s credit card, while Google Pay operates through the contactless functionality of compatible mobile devices. JCB did not offer a detailed timeline for its Google Pay support, saying only that it would arrive “later in the year.”

That having been said, in its announcement JCB did emphasize the convenience of Google Pay, asserting that with the platform, “payments are easy, with no need to enter contact information, credit card number, or other information every time you make a purchase.”

The Google Pay support can be seen as another sign of JCB’s openness to new and emerging payment technologies. The company also recently launched a pilot project trialling fingerprint-scanning credit cards in partnership with IDEMIA and Fingerprint Cards, a new technology that is thought to have considerable potential for growth.