Seven Bank ATMs to Be Installed at FamilyMart Stores

Tokyo, Sept. 26 (Jiji Press)–Seven Bank said Friday that its automated teller machines will be installed at outlets of convenience store chain FamilyMart Co., a subsidiary of major trading house Itochu Corp. FamilyMart will replace some 16,000 existing ATMs with high-performance machines from Seven Bank, an affiliate of Seven & i Holdings Co., which owns Seven-Eleven Japan Co., another major convenience store chain. This will increase the total number of Seven Bank ATMs to about 44,000, exceeding Japan Post Bank’s 31,200 ATMs and securing the largest share in Japan. In August, Itochu and Seven Bank launched talks on a capital and business partnership. Itochu plans to spend 51.3 billion yen to acquire a stake of at least 16 pct in Seven Bank through a third-party allotment scheme by October and then purchase more shares in the market to increase its stake to 20 pct. FamilyMart has about 16,300 stores across Japan, and they have ATMs mainly from E-net Co. Most of the ATMs will be switched to specially designed machines from Seven Bank. This change is expected to enhance convenience, including by making various cashless payment services available. FamilyMart is also considering offering its own financial services, such as selling mortgage products. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]