JCB and Fiuu have entered a direct acquiring partnership covering Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.
The agreement establishes direct connectivity between the two companies, aimed at supporting payment processing across both online and offline channels for merchants and JCB cardmembers in the region.
Under the partnership, Fiuu will act as JCB's regional acquirer for the three markets, providing what the companies describe as broader acceptance and greater consistency for merchants operating across digital and physical commerce. In addition, the direct connectivity model is intended to reduce reliance on intermediary processing arrangements, allowing transactions to be routed more directly between merchant-facing acquiring infrastructure and the JCB scheme.
Eng Sheng Guan, CEO of Fiuu, said the agreement reflects the next phase of the company's regional acquiring growth, noting that businesses expanding across Southeast Asia require payment partners combining local market understanding, direct scheme connectivity, and operational depth. Moreover, Shimpei Yamaguchi, Managing Director of JCB International Asia Pacific, said the partnership is intended to make JCB more accessible to merchants and cardmembers while expanding the network available to JCB cardmembers in the region.
Market context
Southeast Asia's digital commerce and payments sector has continued to see growth in digital transactions and card usage, according to the companies. As consumer spending increasingly spans both online and offline channels, broader and more reliable card acceptance has become a factor for merchants operating across the region. This dynamic has created scope for card schemes and acquirers to extend coverage and improve payment consistency for cross-border and domestic transactions.
JCB represents an international payment brand, and the company has been building out its acceptance network across Asia through partnerships with regional acquirers and processors. Fiuu operates as a multi-channel payment platform in Southeast Asia, supporting merchant acquiring across several markets in the region.
Beyond the initial three markets, JCB and Fiuu said they intend to explore further opportunities to extend JCB acceptance into additional Southeast Asian markets, including Thailand. The companies stated that this would form part of a broader effort to support merchants' evolving payment needs and to improve payment convenience for consumers across the region.
