Chofu City Makes Decision to become First Municipality in Japan to Adopt Mobile Register^®- Enables Payment of Light Motor Vehicle Tax Easily and Securely Using Mobile Phone -

NTT DATA Corporation will provide Mobile Register^® (payment system for use with camera phones as bar-code readers) , a bar code-based settlement service utilizing mobile phones, to Chofu City in Metropolitan Tokyo, the first such service for a municipality in Japan. Chofu is slated to begin using Mobile Register in May 2009 for the payment of the motor vehicle tax for scooters, light-weight motorcycles, and minicars.
Mobile Register is a payment service in which the bar code printed on an invoice or statement of payment is read by the camera of a mobile phone, and payment is made via mobile banking. Using the service eliminates the need to visit a convenience store or bank branch, and payment can be made with simple mobile phone operation at home or on the go. Because the payment is made directly by phone, there is no concern that personal information or billing data will be seen by others. It is thus a payment method that is free of privacy concerns.
Mobile Register, as a means of diversification of payment methods, provides corporate customers and citizens of municipalities with added convenience. Going forward, the plan is to expand application of the Mobile Register service in Chofu to other fees besides the light motor vehicle tax, as well as to other municipalities, and to payments for public utilities such as electricity, gas and water.

Background to Adoption of the System

Since May 2007, Chofu City has offered a service allowing the payment of public fees such as property tax and light motor vehicle tax at convenience stores, based on the Convenience Store Bill Collection Service provided by NTT DATA. It enables fee payments 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, thereby making it easier on taxpayers than traditional payment methods. Yet taxpayers have requested that an even broader range of payment methods be available, and that has been under study.
Mobile Register is a service responsive to Chofu's need for more diverse payment methods. Moreover, organizations who are users of NTT DATA's Convenience Store Bill Collection Service are able to compile data about payments and collected amounts without modifying their payment handling systems, thereby holding down costs. It was this point that led to the decision to adopt the Mobile Register service.
The financial institutions that can be used for Chofu's light motor vehicle tax payment with Mobile Register are Mizuho Bank, Mitsui Sumitomo Bank, Risona Bank, and eBANK.

Using Mobile Register

Overview of Mobile Register

Mobile Register is tailored to offer benefits such as convenience for corporations, municipalities and other payee organizations, users of financial institutions providing mobile banking, and service users making payments. Specifically, those benefits are as follows:

1. Advantages for payee organizations
   Through the use of a camera-equipped mobile phone to read the bar codes on invoices or statements of payment, the existing documents can be used without change, so there is no need for system modification. In addition, the exchange of the data on payments and the transfer of collected money between financial institutions and payee organizations are handled by NTT DATA employing the Pay-easy service, which is operated by the Japan Multi-Payment Network Management Organization. That facilitates the meeting of the demand from users for more ways of making commercial and public fee payments.
2. Advantages for financial institutions
   By utilizing the Pay-easy service, financial institutions whose mobile banking services now have Pay-easy data links can provide services to mobile banking users without making system changes.
3. Advantages for individual users
   Persons with camera-equipped mobile phones who also use mobile banking services provided by various financial institutions are able to avail themselves of Mobile Register without having to go through any complicated contractual formalities.

Mobile Register Requirements for Use

1. Payment-enabled statement
   Statement imprinted with the Mobile Register mark or carrying an indication by the payee organization that it is Mobile Register-compatible (available from over 450 companies)
2. Usable mobile phone
   Any of approximately 200 varieties of camera-equipped mobile phone available from mobile carriers
3. Available financial institution
   Any of approximately 1,100 financial institutions throughout Japan (For details, see the Mobile Register website, which is only available in Japanese)

Future Development of Mobile Register

The target is to grow the service to encompass a large number of users. To achieve that, the goal is to expand beyond municipal taxes to include electricity, gas, water and other public utilities. Also, other types of settlements such as for credit cards will be considered as well.

In addition to its traditional system development business, NTT DATA is enhancing its service and software provision businesses, and Mobile Register is one of those services. NTT DATA provides numerous settlement infrastructure services including ANSER^®, a bank settlement network, CAFIS^®, a comprehensive card settlement network and INFOX^®, a multifunction settlement service. NTT DATA will strive to further enhance its service offerings through the provision of those settlement infrastructures.

* Mobile Register, ANSER, CAFIS, and INFOX are registered trademarks of NTT DATA Corporation.
* Use of Mobile Register requires applying to a financial institution for mobile banking and downloading the Mobile Register application to a mobile phone (free of charge).
* Mobile Register website: http://bc-pay.jp/pc/ (Only in Japanese)
* Mobile Cash Resister Download site: https://bc-pay.jp/ (Only in Japanese)