Rakuten Card Establishes New Systems Development Subsidiary in Vietnam

Tokyo, October 22, 2021 - Rakuten Card Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rakuten Group, Inc., today announced that it acquired a permit on October 12 to establish a subsidiary in Vietnam from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Investment, and has established Rakuten Fintech Vietnam Co., Ltd., headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City.

The proprietary IT systems developed by Rakuten Card are the foundation of the services the company provides and in order to drive sustained growth and expansion of its service lineup, Rakuten Card has established Rakuten Fintech Vietnam as an overseas development center. This is intended to strengthen the organizational structure, both accelerating system development and supporting business continuity planning. The Vietnamese government has implemented significant measures to support the development of human resources in the IT industry, heightening expectations over the long-term for securing and deploying top-tier IT talent within Vietnam. In addition, the minimal time zone difference between Japan and Vietnam is ideal for rapid response to business operational needs in Japan. The new company plans to hire IT engineers locally and initially develop internal systems for Rakuten Card^*1. In the future, Rakuten Fintech Vietnam aims to become a core center for overseas system development in Rakuten Group’s FinTech business, including developing services for customers.

Since launching in July 2005, Rakuten Card has conducted a variety of initiatives to promote cross-use between Rakuten Group services and accelerate the adoption of cashless payments. As a result, Rakuten Card is widely used by many customers across Japan, and the number of cards issued has exceeded 23 million as of June 2021, with annual credit shopping transaction volume reaching 11.6 trillion yen in 2020. Rakuten Card has become one of the top service providers in the credit card industry in Japan, and continues to deliver strong growth.

Rakuten Card will continue working to enhance its credit card service and expand its lineup of features, making financial services more convenient, easier to use and more accessible to customers as it actively seeks to strengthen its organization and secure global talent in order to provide even greater levels of satisfaction to customers.

*1 System development will be conducted in a test environment. Personal information from users in Japan will not be accessed by or transferred to the new subsidiary in Vietnam.

Overview of Rakuten Fintech Vietnam