Seven-Eleven Japan Co. President Fumihiko Nagamatsu uses the 7pay smartphone payment service at a convenience store in central Tokyo on July 1. | KYODO

Business / Corporate

Japan's Seven Pay ordered to report on illegal access to mobile payment system

JIJI

The Financial Services Agency has ordered Seven Pay Co. to report on cases of unauthorized access to 7pay, its hacked mobile payment service, sources said Friday.

The FSA ordered the Seven & I Holdings Co. unit to look into how the intrusions occurred, the customer protection measures it has taken and report back on how it will prevent similar incidents.

The order was issued under the payment services act after Seven Pay said earlier this month that about 900 clients lost some ¥55 million after their accounts were illegally accessed.

The 7pay service has been criticized for lax security since the intruders struck immediately after its July 1 launch.

Seven & I has also begun temporarily blocking logins on smartphone apps run by the major retail group using IDs for five third-party platforms, including Facebook, following the 7pay security breach.

The move, announced Thursday, affects six major apps, including the Seven-Eleven Japan app needed to use the 7pay service and that of supermarket operator Ito-Yokado Co.

The external platforms other than Facebook are Twitter, Google, Yahoo! Japan and Line. It is not known how many people use the third-party platforms to log into the Seven & i group apps.

Logins using IDs for the group’s 7iD membership services remain active.

The 7pay service allows customers to pay for their purchases at Seven-Eleven Japan stores using their smartphones.

With the suspension, however, those who have signed up for the external services have become unable to use the 7pay system even if they have money in their accounts.

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