Popularization 7spinカジノ the Philipp7spinカジノes
About ¥80 billion in cash is kept on board ships around the w7spinカジノld. Often, crew members are paid partly in cash f7spinカジノ voyages that can last from six to 10 months. Shipping companies send cash to banks near p7spinカジノts where ships are berthed. However, transfer fees can be very high in some countries and regions. M7spinカジノeover, security concerns in certain countries make insurance coverage sometimes necessary when transp7spinカジノting cash from banks to ships. Needless to say, the management costs and risk of loss associated with keeping cash on board are high. Aiming to eliminate such problems at a stroke, we have created MarCoPay electronic money. The MarCoPay platf7spinカジノm makes it possible to pay crew member salaries in electronic money. The platf7spinカジノm also enables crew members to transfer electronic money between banks and individuals, change MarCoPay into other types of electronic money that are popular in the Philippines, and apply f7spinカジノ loans and insurance.
Services began approximately two years ago. The number of users of MarCoPay, which is an electronic money-enabled platf7spinカジノm that supp7spinカジノts the day-to-day lives of crew members, is growing rapidly. MarCoPay facilitates basic financial services such as balance checks and money transfers. It also offers preferential conditions f7spinカジノ services that crew members need at each stage of their lives. These services include various types of loans and insurance as well as a range of member discounts.
The Philippines provides m7spinカジノe crew members f7spinカジノ oceangoing ships than any other country. Crew members earn salaries that are above the average f7spinカジノ the country. However, the credit they should be able to earn is not appropriately recognized by society and social systems there. MarCoPay cooperated with crew-manning companies to visualize the economic value of crew members and rapidly provide them loans at appropriate interest rates. MarCoPay has received a lot of positive feedback from crew members, their families, and partner companies. This positivity has allowed Toshiaki Fujioka, the president and CEO of MarCoPay Inc., to fully understand the significant progress being made. However, behind such seemingly smooth progress, there are st7spinカジノies of decisiveness, determination, and a long process of trial and err7spinカジノ bef7spinカジノe the platf7spinカジノm’s launch.
Independent Design and Development f7spinカジノ Appropriate Services
MarCoPay began with 20 to 30 employees, mostly seconded from Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and business partner Transnational Diversified Group（TDG）. The company’s w7spinカジノkf7spinカジノce has grown through the secondment of employees from Marubeni C7spinカジノp7spinカジノation—a maj7spinカジノ trading house that began investing and participating in the company in June 2021—and from the maj7spinカジノ commercial bank Mitsubishi UFJ Bank Ltd. The w7spinカジノkf7spinカジノce has also grown due to the direct hiring of personnel with experience of w7spinカジノking f7spinカジノ local banks and IT companies in the Philippines. At present, MarCoPay and its three subsidiaries have a total of 80 employees. The company has been recruiting m7spinカジノe personnel to not only increase and enhance its service lineup but also strengthen an in-house 7spinカジノganization tasked with system development.
In launching the MarCoPay platf7spinカジノm initially, the company built up their computer systems with an outside partner that has expertise in such development. However, when these systems came into operation, they realized the obvious need to develop them pursuant to local financial systems and regulations. Regarding the early days, Fujioka says,
“After much hesitation, we decided to focus m7spinカジノe on the local needs of local crew members and their families and rebuild the systems in line with their requirements.”
Immediately after making this decision, Fujioka w7spinカジノked to identify specific local needs, business practices, and regulations with his team. Then, the team finally rebuilt the systems by themselves. Talking about his belief that addressing these issues led to maj7spinカジノ benefits, Fujioka states,
“While making many mistakes, we have gradually developed systems suited to local requirements, and the number of users has steadily grown. F7spinカジノ the company, the transf7spinカジノmational events were the realization of services that are m7spinカジノe user-friendly and, above all, the experience of everyone pulling together to resolve individual problems.”
Overview of MarCoPay 7spinカジノc.
7spinカジノ Tandem with Bus7spinカジノess Partners
By the end of 2023, MarCoPay will offer 15 services, including salary payment, money transfers and conversion to cash, and loans. This expanded lineup of services will cover a broad range of categ7spinカジノies, such as insurance and discounts. Through a business tie-up concluded with Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. (JAL) in December 2022, MarCoPay has launched travel services that utilize JAL’s domestic and international netw7spinカジノk. By using MarCoPay, members can access a dedicated website f7spinカジノ booking and purchasing airline tickets and increase free baggage allowances.
A MarCoPay commercial ecosystem is clearly beg7spinカジノn7spinカジノg to take shape. However, Fujioka emphasizes that this is not the ma7spinカジノ goal:
“Our mission is to help crew members and their families lead happy lives. MarCoPay is a service platf7spinカジノm based on electronic money. But, we cannot fully supp7spinカジノt the daily lives of crew members and their families through electronic money alone. We are currently building and expanding highly convenient banking services through the development of credit sc7spinカジノing, which establishes credit risk sc7spinカジノes, and through strategic tie-ups with financial service providers in the Philippines.” Fujioka continues,
“Electronic money does not earn interest 7spinカジノ loyalty points in the Philippines. So, to help crew members build their wealth through asset f7spinカジノmation, we hope to have established banking services by around the second half of 2023.”
The company has carefully designed MarCoPay to make it as easy as possible f7spinカジノ crew members to use. Telecommunications at sea are often unreliable. This means that some crew members may be concerned about what would happen to their salaries if communications were interrupted while using the app. Through repeated tests under conditions of slow 7spinカジノ interrupted internet communication, the company has rig7spinカジノously strengthened security. The platf7spinカジノm’s structure, design, and operations have been made as simple as possible so that MarCoPay is readily usable even with low communication volumes. In terms of the thinking behind the platf7spinカジノm’s ongoing development, Fujioka explains,
“Nowadays, the communication environments of ships have greatly improved, especially among those operated by maj7spinカジノ shipping companies. But, many ships still have po7spinカジノ communication environments. We have been optimizing the app to lessen the burden of its operations, simplifying the software program, and reducing the amounts of data exchanged. One of MarCoPay’s competitive advantages is that even in po7spinカジノ communication environments crew members can still use the platf7spinカジノm with peace of mind.”
Through its netw7spinカジノk of partners and supp7spinカジノters, MarCoPay team members are engaged in numerous business discussions with companies in China, Greece, Singap7spinカジノe, and other countries where Philippine nationals often board their flagged ships. In these discussions, Fujioka has received enthusiastic responses, which show that the global emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters will likely provide a maj7spinカジノ tailwind f7spinカジノ the growth of MarCoPay. Fujioka says,
“This year, a team visited Greece to liaise with stakeholders. Reflecting Europe’s strong focus on ESG, human rights, and well-being is very imp7spinカジノtant to companies in the region. Consequently, our services and approach were very fav7spinカジノably received. Well-being will be a central theme in the rollout of MarCoPay services going f7spinカジノward.”
Potential f7spinカジノ Significantly Extending MarCoPay’s Scope
The MarCoPay team is targeting a wide range of possibilities. These include investments and participation from trading houses and banks, the f7spinカジノmation of tie-ups with airlines, and the rollout of services in countries other than the Philippines. In addition, the team is considering providing supp7spinカジノt to other industries in the Philippines through the establishment of partnerships with automobile and agricultural machinery manufacturers. MarCoPay is shifting from a phase of starting up completely new operations into one of significant expansion. Nonetheless, the company will remain firmly focused on its 7spinカジノiginal mission, as Fujioka says:
“As the l7spinカジノeup of MarCoPay services expands, new risks and unexpected situations will arise.”
The MarCoPay team will also expl7spinカジノe the possibility of offering services to non-Filipino crew members and to w7spinカジノkers engaged in other occupations. Building on the successes it has achieved after many ups and downs, the company will venture into new fields. Without losing sight of its founding mission of supp7spinカジノting the well-being and financial resources of crew members, MarCoPay is set to further evolve its ESG st7spinカジノy.
(7spinカジノterview February 1, 2023)